That Time I conquered Equestria... As A Colt

by Timzocker201

Rating: mature
Tags: Violence, Death, Alternate Universe, Main 6, Gore, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Romance, Sex, Non-consensual, Adventure
Length: 100895

A Brony has the lamest death one can imagine back on earth and, as a make-up, is transported to equestria as a Unicorn Colt.

James was an average guy. His marks were average, his friends were average, his hobbies... well, you get the idea. Although, there was one thing that made him stand out at least a little. He was a brony. Not much of a deviation from the average, but hey, it's something.
Though, his average life one night made a drastic turn, when he was staying home due to a cold and then... just died. That was it, he died. Of a cold. In the middle of summer. In a country, where the common cold was normally nothing more than an inconvenience.
It was unbelievable, it was almost impossible, but most of all, it was... lame. so lame in fact, that even the universe itself couldn't believe that something like this could happen. Thus, it decided to make it up to James, by giving him another chance in another world, where his life wouldn't be so lame anymore...

Content warnings: evil/manipulative protagonist, foalcon, necromancy, extortion, torture, intentionally bad jokes, as well as complete and utter overuse of the word 'bollocks'.

Published 2020-10-16 21:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2021-12-12 14:12:24 UTC

A new place to call Home

If one would have told James that he would have fun going to school again, he would have just laughed at the one to propose such stupidity. After all, school was the most boring activity he had ever come across. Not because he was ignorant of the importance of knowledge, mind you, but because he picked up on things way faster than normal people, so he only needed one or two periods for something others needed multiple weeks to master. As such, he was constantly bored in school, which caused him to sleep through most of the lessons and still finish school with a B in everything except P.E. and arts.

Not this time, however. The first lesson he got into was about the strengths of the different species and how they harmonized together. His interest was hardly a surprise, given that he only knew what the show and the fandom told him.

After the basics were through, the class was split up into three groups, one for every race, and they got special training for their race-specific abilities. Namely flying for the Pegasi, magic for the Unicorns and a mix of P.E. and craftsponyship for the Earthponies.

Frozen Blood was really glad for these lessons. After all, he didn’t know how to use his magic and he would’ve had to ask somepony who knew. This would’ve likely been Twilight, which would’ve brought the benefit of him earning her trust, sure, but he doubted that even he could go through one of Twilight’s lectures without dozing off.

That being said, he was almost a bit underwhelmed when he was told that using magic for a unicorn really only boils down to concentrating on an object and imagining what you want to happen to it. At least in the case of the more simple spells. For more advanced magic, you apparently needed to concentrate not only on your target, but also move your magic in specific patterns through your body to get the desired effect. Something that even a fast learner such as Frozen Blood couldn’t just do on the first try.

Still, all in all, he found re-attending school most enjoyable. At least until the second period rolled around.

Frozen Blood loved maths. He really did. After all, when he was still James, he was studying mathematics. It had always fascinated him how something as simple as numbers could be used to describe the most complex of processes in the universe and he was certain that even his little dimensional travel could somehow be explained mathematically.

That being said, this didn’t mean that he couldn’t grow bored with it, as especially the more repetitive side of mathematics had him sleep through one or another lesson back in school. As such, it likely is no wonder that he had difficulties paying attention in Cheerilee’s class. On multiple occasions, his eyes momentarily fluttered shut while she was writing some new equations onto the blackboard, which Frozen Blood could easily solve without even looking at them. The only thing that kept him from dozing off completely was the incarnation of ‘annoying’ that was sitting to his right.

Right at the moment when Cheerilee first turned her back, Frozen had felt something scratch through his fur and when he turned to look, he saw Diamond Tiara scribble on his flank with her pencil. Not that whatever she drew would be visible that much, given that his coat was already grey to begin with. However, solely the fact that she actually dared to touch his behind was enough for him to finally and definitely decide that he didn’t like her.

Not that he liked her to begin with, but after this, there was definitely no chance of redemption for her.

“Frozen Blood, are you paying attention?” Cheerilee asked suddenly, drawing Frozen’s attention again, after his eyes were already drifting shut once more.

“Euh, yes, I am, Miss Cheerilee!” He answered, though Cheerilee seemed not convinced.

“Oh really? Then you can certainly tell me the answer to the first equation.” She stated, pointing her hoof at an equation that seemingly had most of the other foals by their tails. Frozen, however, didn’t even miss a beat with his answer.

“58+32 equals 90, Miss Cheerilee.” He said, already drifting back to sleep.

“Hmm… alright, I’ll let that pass for now. Still, try to pay more attention in class!” Cheerilee ordered, to which Frozen Blood only gave a half-hearted “Yes, Miss Cheerilee”.

Finally, the bell rang and all the foals jumped up from their seats, quickly packing everything together, hoping to be faster than Cheerilee could utter those accursed words:

“Wait, I still got homework for you!”

Everypony in the room groaned when she said that, but collected their respective worksheets anyways. However, when frozen came to pick up his, Cheerilee pulled him aside.

“I actually have some more questions for you, Frozen Blood. Firstly: who and where are your parents? After all, even if you weren’t missing from my class, there’s certainly somepony who should be watching over you, isn’t there?” She asked, making Frozen Blood’s mind start to race, trying to make up a good answer, which he wouldn’t need to adapt later on.

“Euh, well, you see… I’m actually… kind of a wandering orphan.” He said, earning him a series of gasps from Cheerilee and most of the foals present.

“Oh, you poor little colt, I didn’t know that. Well, in that case, I will immediately contact the closest Orphanage to try and get a place to live for you.” Cheerilee offered, making Frozen Blood go wide-eyed.

“Eh, I don’t think that’s necessary, Miss Cheerilee. I’m pretty good on my own.” He told her, but she wouldn’t have it.

“Oh no, young colt. Foals need somepony to care for them and I won’t allow you to be an exception!” She stated firmly. “Though, speaking of that, it will likely take a few days until I get a reply and I’m afraid I don’t have enough room to take in another foal.”

Wait, another? Huh, I didn’t know that Cheerilee had any.

“Oh, that’s quite alright. I can get by on my ow-“

“Oooh, Oooh, Ah can ask mah sis if he can stay with us!” Applebloom suddenly chimed in from behind him.

“Really? Oh, that would be great if you could do that.” Cheerilee thanked.

“Uh, yeah, that would be very nice of you.” Frozen Blood said as well, as he turned around and looked down at the yellow filly.

Wait… I’m taller than her? Oh no, this can’t mean… I’m older than them and I’m still a blank flank? Oh bollocks…

“Siiiiiiiis!” Applebloom shouted as she and Frozen Blood entered into the farm.

“What’s it, Applebloom? Did y’all make tha lake explode again?” Applejack asked from the kitchen, before she and Big Mac came into the hallway to greet the young filly. However, both their gazes immediately shifted over to Frozen Blood when they laid eyes on him.

“Oh, y’all have brought a friend from school?” She asked, scanning him from top to bottom as if she was assessing him with a critical gaze.

“Yeah! He’s an orphan and Cheerilee is tryna get a home fer him and ah wanted t’ask if he ken stay with us until then.” Applebloom told her sister.

“Well…” Applejack started after pondering a moment. “We do ‘ave that old guest room… I’d say he can if Big Mac ‘n granny agree.”

Big Mac nodded his agreement beside her, making the young filly squee and rush off into the kitchen to get the, hopefully, third agreement from Granny Smith. As soon as she was gone Frozen Blood suddenly found himself under the combined gazes of Applejack and Big Mac, who, from their perspective, were looking at their sister’s potential first coltfriend.

“As for you, young colt… what’s yer name anyways?” Applejack asked, but before Frozen Blood could answer, Applebloom called back from the kitchen.

“Oh, his name is Frozen Blood!”

Immediately, both adults went wide-eyed, looking at the colt in a rather disturbed manner.

“That’s… quite tha name, ain’t it, Big Mac?” Applejack said, looking over to her brother, who just nodded slowly.

“Eeeeyup.”

“Yeah, really makes your blood freeze, doesn’t it?” Frozen Blood joked, to which Applejack only laughed uncomfortably.

“Ehehehe, yeah… it does.” She quickly shook her head free again after that and proceeded to look at him more firmly. “But still: that there filly is our sister an’ if ya dare ta try anythin’ funny on her, then ya’ll get ta know how much we apples hold tagether.” She threatened, eliciting another reply from Big Mac.

“Eeeeyup.”

“Uh… what? What would bring you to draw that conclusion so quickly?” Frozen Blood asked confusedly.

“Well, that there Cutie Mark of yers ain’t leavin any room fer imagination.” Applejack answered.

Frozen Blood immediately looked back to his left flank, but found it empty. He checked his right as well and there he found what Applejack meant. Honestly, when he saw what Diamond Tiara had actually drawn there, he was wondering how she even knew what colts looked down there in such detail…

“Oh… yeah, that’s not my Cutie Mark, that’s just a bad joke… anyways: You need not worry, I have no such intention at the moment. And even if I had, I doubt that Applebloom is old enough to even have any romantic interest in colts… or other ponies in general.” Frozen Blood stated.

“Yeah, ah know, but still…” Applejack relented. “Ah don’t wanna see her come home crying ‘cause some colt broke ‘er heart, so be careful ‘round her, ya hear?”

“Alright, will do.” Frozen Blood agreed, just before Applebloom came speeding back again.

“Granny said yes too! Come on, Ah’ve gotta show ya where yer room is b’fore we can go crusadin’ with the others!” She said excitedly, pulling Frozen Blood upstairs to where his new room would be.

Said room was actually not half bad. There was a bed, a small nightstand, as well as a wardrobe, a chair and a small table. It reminded him a bit of his dorm room, with only his Laptop being amiss.

He didn’t have much time to assess his new home, though, before Applebloom looked at the clock and noticed that they were almost late for the CMC meeting, quickly dragging Frozen Blood along as she sped off towards the Clubhouse.

“Alright, are you ready to swear the oath?” Scootaloo asked, as she stood in front of Frozen Blood with the other two CMCs flanking her.

“Heh, I was born ready.” Frozen Blood remarked.

“That’s what I wanted to hear. Now speak after me: I swear-“

“I swear-”

“To never stop searching for my Cutie Mark-“

“To never stop searching for my Cutie Mark-“

“And to never give up-“

“And to never give up-“

“And to never leave my fellow Crusaders hanging.”

“And to never leave my fellow Crusaders hanging.”

“Woohoo” Both, Applebloom and Scootaloo cheered.

“Uh… wasn’t the oath we agreed on a bit different?” Sweetiebelle asked.

“I dunno. I forgot the old one and just made one up on the fly.” Scootaloo said dismissively.

“Doesn’t really matter anyways. We got a new Crusader with us now!” Applebloom cheered.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Sweetie said. “Though… I’m sorry but we don’t have a cape for you yet. I’ll make one as soon as Rarity lets me get close to her sewing machine again, though.”

“Oh, that’s quite alright. It’s not that the cape has any effect on me wanting to find my Cutie Mark anyways.” Frozen said, to which all three Crusaders nodded.

However, Scootaloo suddenly seemed to be pondering something, which immediately came to Applebloom’s attention.

“Hey Scoots, what’cha all thinkin’ about?”

“Uh, you know… It’s just that I think it feels kinda weird to say his name. I mean, really, ‘Frozen Blood’ has a really weird sound to it. I think we need a nickname for him.” Scootaloo said, already trying to come up with one.

“What? Already thinking about nicknames? Don’t you think that’s a bit fas-“ Frozen Blood pointed out, though he was cut off by Applebloom.

“A Nickname? Huh… how about ‘Bloody’?” She said, earning her a cringe from the other three foals in the clubhouse.

“No, definitely not.” Said Frozen Blood and Scootaloo agreed.

“Yeah, that one sounds a bit too… bloody.”

“Then what about ‘Frosty’?” Sweetie suggested.

“Okay, that one sounds just ridic-“ Frozen wanted to complain, but he was cut off by a not-listening Applebloom again.

“Frosty sounds good, ah take it!”

“Great, I like it too!” Scootaloo agreed.

“NEW CUTIE MARK CRUSADER FROSTY, YAY!” All three then shouted together.

“Heh, yeah… great…” He said unenthusiastically.

Oh bollocks… ‘Frosty’ thought.

School Days

Frosty’s first night in Equestria went… actually not bad at all. Even though his bed turned out to be nothing more than a hay bale covered with some cloth, he actually had a very restful night’s sleep. Though, sadly, it is a universal rule that one always gets woken up from their slumber when it’s the most comfortable and Equestria is no exception.

*knock knock*

“Frozen Blood, get outta bed, you an’ Applebloom need ta go ta school!” Applejack called through the door.

“School? Euh, mom, I’m already out of school for two years now…” Frosty mumbled, as he covered his head with his pillow.

After hearing him complain, Applejack opened the door and moved inside with annoyance already showing on her face.

“Ah dun’ know what y’all were talkin’ ‘bout just now. What ah do know is that it sounded like y’all ain’t gonna get up, so let me say it again: Ya have tah go ta school now!” She commanded, which only elicited an annoyed groan from Frosty.

“Alright, it seems ah need tah get the big guns.” Applejack said, leaving the room and returning a few moments later with an old method that the Apples had used for generations.

*Splash*

“AAAAH!” Frosty screamed, as the cold water hit him and he immediately jumped out of bed.

“Ah see yer finally awake now. Good, ‘cause y’all need ta gallop ta school if ya wanna make it in time.” Applejack pointed out.

“What, school again? Oooh, but I’m officially not even here! Do I really need to go?” Frosty said, still groggy from his freshly awoken state.

“Yep. There ain’t nopony slackin’ off in this here house. Y’all either go ta school or help in the orchard an’ I doubt that you wanna help Big Mac pull that plow.”

“Eenope.” Sounded from downstairs, where Big Mac was currently readying for his plow-pulling.

“Alright, alright, I’m on my way. Where’s Applebloom?” Frosty asked, just before he reached the door.

“She’s prolly already at tha schoolhouse. Ah told her t’go ahead or else she might be late.”

“Oh bollocks.” Frosty cursed, before galloping off towards the schoolhouse.

“And there ain’t no cursin’ either, ya hear?!” Applejack shouted after him.

“Eeenope.” Big Mac agreed.

Maths, Equestrian (or English to us), P.E, History and Political Education. Sadly, as it turned out, the lesson about the different pony types was an exception that was made only once a month. Every other day was actually filled with a completely normal school-timetable as many of us may know it. As such, except for the last two lessons, there was little to look forward to for Frozen Blood, which resulted in the exact same thing that happened back on earth: Boredom.

And even the breaks didn’t do much to make the day any more enjoyable, which was partially due to a certain pain in the ass.

“Oh, do you see that, Silverspoon? It seems the blank flank club has a new member.” Diamond Tiara said to Silverspoon, making sure that the group before her could hear her.

Frosty sighed and turned around, already having been annoyed enough when he was constantly harassed by her during the lessons. “You’re really growing annoying, you know? What even is it about these Cutie Marks that everypony has to have one?” Frosty asked, playing at the answer he knew he would get.

Everypony around him was immediately looking at him with shock in their eyes. “What, you don’t know why Cutie Marks are so important? They show our special talents, that’s why they’re important!”

“Ah, I see! So your special talent is… wearing a Tiara? That’s… useful, I guess?” Frosty said innocently, internally grinning that she had answered exactly what he needed.

Diamond Tiara gasped, before looking at Frosty angrily. “It’s not that simple, you plebeian! It means that I’m destined to become royalty in the future!”

“Oh really? Because, well… that tiara in your Cutie Mark looks exactly like the one you’re already wearing, so… unless you’ll get one that looks exactly the same, I’d say that your future looks pretty dull…” Frosty pointed out, to which Diamond Tiara’s eyes slightly widened.

She lifted her tiara before her eyes, comparing it to the one on her flank, before dropping it and having her mouth fall open. “But… But… But…” She repeated over and over again like a broken record. Silverspoon waved a hoof before her eyes, but Diamond Tiara didn’t respond, so she gave a last glare at Frosty, before pulling her along, away from them.

“Huh… that was easy.” Scootaloo remarked.

School, getting annoyed by Diamond Tiara, crusading, some chores Applejack came up with, sleep, School, getting annoyed by Tiara, crusading, sleep, School, getting annoyed, crusading, sleep…

A whole week of this same schedule over and over again. Granted, there was the weekend, which was kinda refreshing, but every other day was just the same. This was hardly a problem for Frozen Blood, as this meant that he always knew what would come next and thus could better plan his next steps… If there were any next steps to take.

The problem with Frosty’s current plan was that he firstly needed influence and this influence would have to come through recognition, per his plan, by the element bearers. He wanted to use the crusaders to accomplish this, but this was a lot harder than he first expected.

He had actually expected them, given their record, to get into trouble within the first few days, so that he could then come out and get them out again. Unfortunately for him, though, that didn’t happen. At least not within the timespan he had predicted. As such, he found that he better search for other ways to make a name for himself, other than by saving the crusaders… and where better to search for something like this than at the place where it all began?

Thus, one day after they were done crusading, he returned to the clearing where he had first awoken, covered in tree sap from head to toe and more than just slightly annoyed.

“So… I mean, I knew that the clearing was empty, but I had at least hoped to find a Handbag or something in the grass. Still, at least I have some quiet here to think for myself…” He muttered to himself, before he started to think aloud.

“Let’s see… there isn’t much to me currently, as far as I can tell… I mean sure, there is my over-the-top knowledge, at least considering my apparent age, which might impress Twilight a little. Rarity would be easy too, if I just put on my best manners. The problems really are with Applejack, Rainbow and Fluttershy…”

He started pacing in circles, thinking, pondering, calculating… but everything he could come up with would require him to wait at least four years or even more in order to accomplish. Not just four years of work, either, but actual waiting. Truth be told, building up influence as a child without any noble heritage or special abilities was near impossible.
“Argh, why in the world did I even get transported here as a FOAL?!” He shouted out, kicking a rock off into the woods.

GROWL!

Suddenly came from the exact place where the rock had hit. A Manticore suddenly burst forth through the treeline, with that same rock firmly lodged into its left eye and the other currently locked onto Frozen Blood.

“Oh and now I’m just going to be eaten by some overgrown cat?! Oh yeah, fate, real fair play!”

GROWL!!

The Manticore started sprinting towards Frosty, with its maw wide open, ready to devour him whole.

“Oh, yeah, come on! First I die of a cold and now you’re killing me with a Manticore?! Oh, why don’t you just DIE for once?!”

Just as he screamed that, the Manticore suddenly fell to the ground, lifeless and before Frosty could make any further moves, his flank suddenly started to glow.

“Wait… what?” He asked nobody in particular, as he examined his flank.

“Huh, neat, I got a Cutie Mark from this… I can’t quite see what it is, though…”

He looked around and spotted the lake again. He walked over to take a look at the mirror image, but the moment he set eyes on his reflection, he jerked back.

“AH! Oh, by the lord, what’s that?!”

He tentatively looked again and had to wince as he saw his reflection. The Cutie Mark had come out as a pony skeleton which was attached to four strings which were connected to a wooden cross above it. This wasn’t what concerned him, though, but the fact that his eyes had suddenly been replaced by a hollow blackness in which red dots apparently served as his pupils.

“Okay, James, stay calm, everything is alright. Breathe in…" Frosty inhaled and closed his eyes for a moment. “Breathe out…” He exhaled and opened his eyes again. He then slowly looked over the brink again, to see… his old light blue eyes.

“Wait, that worked? Ah… okay.” He turned back and looked at the dead Manticore, before looking at his flank again. “Now back to you: A skeleton with strings doesn’t really explain this, but… I think I have a good guess what it’s supposed to mean…”

He turned around to face the carcass fully, before focusing on it and speaking: “Rise!”

As a result, he felt something warm well up in his chest, before a part of that warmth split off and went into the creature before him. A few seconds of silence followed, before the creature’s eyes opened, revealing the same hollow blackness Frosty had found in his own, though the pupils of the beast were purple.

The beast rose to its full height again and then just stood there, looking at Frosty and apparently awaiting command.

“So… I’m a Necromancer, huh? Hehe, well, that makes my plan a lot easier. I mean, now I can actually do something… or at the very least I have something to study while I wait for an opportunity…” He pondered a little, before coming to another conclusion: “I’m still going to go the sneaky way, though. Simply because I can’t imagine that these ponies would like a ruler, who became that by steamrolling their Homeland with undead…”

He took a last look into his mirror pond and saw that his eyes had yet again changed.

“Also, apparently my eyes turn like this whenever I use Necromancy, which, while kinda cool looking, is a dead giveaway, so I should probably watch out for that.”

With that out of the way, he looked over to the treeline and saw, how the evening sun slowly crept behind the trees.

“Oh crap, Applejack wanted that I come back before sunset! I better make haste, or I’ll probably have to pluck every apple in the orchard by hand- euh, hoof.”

When he reached the orchard again, it was just barely before sunset. Applejack was already waiting before the gate and gave him a disapproving glare.

“Alright, ya made it b’fore sunset this time. Ah thought Ah’d have ta give ya some more chores again.” Applejack chided, as Frosty walked past her.

He didn’t hear her though, as he was occupied with something else. From the outside, Applejack seemed completely normal, but through his mind’s eye, for a lack of a better description, he could see another pony inside her, or at least, the shape of another pony. That pony was radiating some sort of warmth that reminded him of what he felt just before he turned that Manticore undead.

‘hmmm… interesting. I should probably first put some research into that. Not that I have anything better to do anyways…’

As he made his way past Applejack, he found his path suddenly blocked by Applebloom.

“Where have ya been? After we were done crusading you were jus’-… is that a Cutie Mark?!”

Frosty looked at his flank and then back at Applebloom, who looked like she was about to explode.

“Ehehehe, yeah, uhm, I somehow got it when I went out today… ummm, surprise?” He answered sheepishly, but Applebloom just continued to stare at him, until she suddenly blared out:

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS EMERGENCY MEETING!!!!”

‘Oh bollocks…’ Frosty thought.

EMERGENCY MEETING! (Mini-chapter)

Frosty found himself in a chair within a dark room, the torch hanging over his head being the only source of light and illuminating only him.

“Subject Frosty, where have ya been between when we finished crusading and sunset?” A country-accented voice suddenly asked out of the darkness.

“Uhh, shouldn’t it be ‘suspect’?” A more tentative-sounding voice added in.

“That’s what ah said!”

“Did not!”

“Did yes!”

“Did not!”

“Did YES!”

“Nuh-uh!”

“Ah did!”

As the two fillies bickered on, frosty just remained sitting, looking at the third in the bunch with annoyance. Scootaloo, in turn, looked between her two friends with a hint of shock and wonder. Normally it was her and Applebloom that would get into a fight like this, but to see Sweetie be the one arguing was truly something new. Maybe it was because she was tired?

After she had discovered Frosty’s Cutie Mark, Applebloom had dragged all four of them into an emergency meeting that very same evening. As such, Sweetie and Scootaloo had to sneak out in order to get there, while Applebloom had somehow convinced her sister to let her go.

“Uhh… girls?” Scootaloo finally interjected, “I don’t think this is getting anywhere like this. Besides… we tried getting private investigator Cutie Marks already and it didn’t work.”

The Bickering stopped and both of them glared at Scootaloo, before sighing and looking at their flanks.

“Ah know, but ah thought it was worth a try…” Applebloom relented.

“Still, how did you get it, frosty? And what’s it supposed to mean anyways?” Scootaloo then asked.

Frosty got up off the chair and looked at his own flank, where his Cutie Mark still sat. ‘I can’t exactly tell them that I got it by killing a Manticore, can I? Oh, what to say, what to say…’

“Well… when we finished Crusading yesterday, I went for a walk and… when I started playing around with my magic, I suddenly got my Cutie Mark. As for its meaning… I guess I’m a puppeteer?”

‘That’s not even that much of a lie, actually.’

“Playing around like what?” Applebloom pressed.

“Does it really matter? I mean, you aren’t a Unicorn anyways and besides…” Frosty trotted over to a window and opened it slightly, revealing the darkness that had long since set in outside of the clubhouse. “…I think we are all in some very deep trouble if we drag this on any longer, so… could we just… you know… set this to another time, when we should not be asleep? Like tomorrow afternoon or something?”

Applebloom seemed like she wanted to protest, but was stopped by Sweetie Belle speaking up. “I think he’s right. I mean, Rarity is probably going to be mad if she finds out that I snuck out, so… I think it’s better that I go home now…” She said, while slowly trotting over to the door.

“Yeah, me too. Aunt and auntie are probably already wondering, how I picked the lock again, so I better go back before they send out another search party.” Scootaloo agreed.

“But… but…” Applebloom stammered, only to finish off with a sigh. “Alright, we can do this t’morrow.” She then snapped over to Frosty and fixed him with a commanding glare. “But y’all are gonna tell us how you got it tomorrow, no excuses!”

Frosty’s hoof shot up in a mock salute and he gave a played serious look. “Yes sir, will do!”

Author's Note

My sincerest apologies for the short chapter guys. I had to work a lot of Overtime lately and thus had very little time to write. I actually wrote this on the train ride home, in order to at least give you something. I hope next week will go to plan. The current schedule at least lets me hope a little.

Necromancy

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

Aftereffects

Only a few minutes after his meeting with the crusaders and its rather… interesting ending, Frosty entered the Farmhouse again, where Granny Smith and Applejack were currently preparing dinner.

“Heya, Frosty! Are y’all playing tag or why was Applebloom speedin’ through like Wynona when she’s sniffed treats?” Applejack asked, apparently having adopted the name her younger sister had given him.

“Euh… no, uh, we just had a crusader meeting and Applebloom said that she needs to prepare something for their next attempt.” He lied. Luckily, since Applejack wasn’t looking at him, she didn’t notice the lie.

“Ah shucks, Ah hope they ain’t gettin’ covered in tree sap again. That stuff clings to yer fur like glue t’ paper.” She shuddered at the thought of having to wash all of that tree sap out of her sister’s fur again. “Anyways, supper ain’t ready yet, but ya can have a glass of juice, if ya want.” She offered, gesturing to a glass and a carafe of apple juice standing on the table.

“Thanks, I’ll gladly take some.” Frosty answered.

He went closer to the table and gently poured some magic into his horn, concentrating on the glass and the carafe, before gently—

Suddenly, the glass shot up towards the ceiling like a rocked and shattered upon impact.

“Whoa!” Applejack exclaimed, as she whirled around from the noise. She looked up and gawked at the glass shards now firmly stuck in the wooden boards.

“Woo-ee, Frosty, Ah’ve heard that colts your age like to experiment with their magic, but ah think that went a bit too far…” She said, slightly dumbstruck at the picture before her.

Frosty, who had no idea how that had happened, could only chuckle nervously. “Ehehe… yeah, sorry, Applejack. I’ll be more careful next time…”

“Ah sure hope so… anyways, supper’s ready. Can y’all go upstairs an’ tell Applebloom t’ come down?”

“Sure!”

A few minutes later, the Apple Family and Frosty sat together at the dinner table. Although, sitting there and actually eating were still two different sets of spoons. Out of the five ponies at the table, only three were actually eating. The other two, Frosty and Applebloom, were barely even touching their meals. Frosty, because he was trying to figure how to eat with his hooves, lest he send his spoon and fork into outer space and Applebloom, because she was too occupied hiding herself behind the table and peering over at Frosty.

Applejack took note of the strange behavior of her sister and decided to ask them directly. “Alright, you two, has something happened between y’all that Ah don’t know of yet?”

“What? Uh, no, not that I could think of something.” Frosty immediately answered, before taking note of Applebloom’s state and noticing, what Applejack might mean.

‘Oh bollocks, this is bad. What am I gonna tell her? ‘Oh, it’s nothing, I just touched her and now she loves me.’? Nope, that sounds like a very stupid Idea to me.’

“Y’all know that ain’t true, Frosty! Just look at her! She’s hiding from you!” Applejack pointed out.

“N-No, I’m not! I-I’m just… just tired, is all!” Applebloom protested, though Applejack didn’t buy it.

“Nope, y’all don’t need t’ lie to me. Ah can smell a lie from the other side Ponyville!” She boasted.

‘Yeah, sure…’ Frosty didn’t say.

“Uhm… well…”

‘Okay, think, James, think! How do I get out of this mess?’

“Uh… yeah, actually something did happen… At the meeting, I… kinda touched her muzzle… and she didn’t like that, apparently.”

Applejack gave frosty a questioning look, before looking over to her sister. “Is that true, Apple—“ Only to find that said sister had fled the scene, already at the top of the stairs by the time anypony noticed.

“Uh, well… I guess we should give her a little time to calm down for now.” Frosty offered.

Applejack gave him a scrutinizing look, but in the end just sighed and went back to her meal.

“Alright.” She said. “But tomorrow, y’all are apologizing t’her, ya hear?”

“Of course, I will.” Frosty promised, glad that he had evaded yet another critical moment.

Meanwhile, three fillies lay in their beds in three different houses. All of them were thinking about many different things, but in the end, all their thoughts settled on the same thing.

Ever since Frosty had touched them, they felt strange. There was this strange tingling in their bellies that they couldn’t quite figure out. It didn’t feel bad in any way either, quite the opposite actually.

All three were rubbing the spots they felt the tingling in, wondering what that might mean. They had all heard the tales of spontaneous love erupting between two ponies, but was this really love what they felt? They didn’t know. They had never been in love and up until now they hadn’t even cared much for colts anyways.

Now, however, they felt this strange feeling every time Frosty crossed their minds. It was as if there was a pull in their minds, something that cried to them to be close to him and to never leave his side. Was this really what love was supposed to be? They didn’t know and the more they tried to come up with something, the more frustrated they got.

In the end, all three just sighed and looked up at the ceilings in their individual rooms, all of them having the same question on their mind:

“What is happening to me?”

Author's Note

Yay, another (way too short) chapter! And bad news on top of that! No new chapter next week, 'cuz field exercise. yay. Army life is fun... most of the time.

Anyways, I hope you can hold out until the next chapter comes out. That one will (hopefully, if everything goes to plan) be an actual gem ^^

Striped mystery

Even before the first rays of the sun dared crossing the horizon and come into view the morning after, one could already hear hoofsteps coming from inside the Apple Family Homestead. Though, it wasn’t Applejack or Big Mac getting ready for farmwork, as even they were still asleep.

Frosty had gotten up especially early that Saturday morning. School was not in session (duh), which meant that he had all the time he needed for continuing his experiments. Before he could start with that, however, he first had to fix an issue that had come up the day before.

He went into the Everfree, specifically the place where he had left the two Manticore corpses. Frosty wasn’t actually surprised that they were still there. After all, they probably smelled like death from top to bottom, which would likely deter any predator in the Everfree.

“Well, guess I’ll have to find a way to get rid of them… maybe there’s something necromancy can do about that?” He asked himself, before trying his luck.

“Eat!”

Nothing.

“Feast!”

Nothing.

“Consume!”

Nothing yet again.

“Devour!”

And even more nothing. Frosty was growing frustrated.

“Oh come on! I’m too small to just carry them away and I can’t just wait for them to rot away, can I?”

Suddenly, one of the corpses began to rapidly deteriorate. Its skin and flesh peeled off its bones and fell to the ground, before, as one, everything crumbled into a pile of dirt and a small amount of residue lifeforce made its way into Frosty’s stock.

He blinked in surprise as he watched the whole process unfold. He then looked over to the remaining body and tried again.

“Rot!”

Immediately, the process repeated, leaving a second pile of dirt on the ground and a second bit of lifeforce to join Frosty’s growing stock. He remained there for a while, standing and looking back and forth between the two former manticores.

“Wow… that was easy.” He remarked to himself. “Well… I guess that means I can return to Ponyville and get on with my experiments, huh? Though… it feels like I’m forgetting something…”

The sun had fully risen by the time he returned to Ponyville, which was perfect, as that meant that there were likely a few background-ponies out and about that he could experiment on.

Specifically, he wanted to try to repeat whatever he did to the CMC. After all, he couldn’t be sure, yet, what exactly he had done and he also didn’t know, how the effects would show if the pony he tried it on was older. He also didn’t know, what would happen if he tried the same thing on someone, who wasn’t a pony… but that had to wait for later, ‘cause right now, there was a different problem.

The streets of Ponyville were empty. And not even the ‘empty’ one would experience during a holiday or a Sunday, where all the shops were closed and only a few joggers and the likes were out. No, the streets were empty. Not a single soul could be seen outside. Not even the CMC trying some stuff or something.

“Where is everpony?” Suddenly somepony asked from behind him.

He turned around and saw Twilight with Spike sitting on her back and at that moment, he knew exactly what was going on.

“Ooooooh, the Zecora-episode! But… weren’t the CMC founded only after that whole thing? Huh… Well, it doesn’t really matter. This universe can’t be 1:1 the same thing as the show anyways, now can it?”

“Hey, miss Twilight!” He greeted, gaining her attention.

“Oh, hello! Finally, at least somepony who’s out today… aren’t you the young colt that came to the Library yesterday?”

“Indeed. Hello again.” Frosty greeted with a friendly smile. “Say, you wouldn’t happen to know, why there’s nopony out today?”

“Aaactually I wanted to ask the same thing. So, I take it you don’t know what’s going on either?”

Frosty shook his head and looked around. “Not really, no. I thought it was some kind of an event, maybe?”

Twilight tilted her head and lifted an eyebrow at that. “What kind of event would that be?”

“Uh… I don’t know… Deep-sleep day, maybe?”

In response to that suggestion, Twilight just deadpanned at him.

“Yeah, no need to say it out loud, I know that it’s stupid… In any case, we should probably find out what’s going on, don’t you agree?”

“Yeah, that would likely be for the best, lest we really miss an important event that we didn’t know about.” Twilight said, continuing her way towards the central plaza, with Frosty joining her side.

As they closed in on the town center, the atmosphere around them seemed to become more unsettling by the second. They could hear ponies going about inside the buildings, but apart from the odd pony slamming a door shut, they didn’t come across anypony on the streets.

“What’s going on with everypony?” Spike asked from Twilight’s back. “Does my breath smell bad?”

He breathed a small flame into the air and sniffed at the residue smoke.

“Not more than usual.” Twilight quipped.

“It seems more like they are afraid of something than being deterred by your breath.” Frosty remarked, as he gave a short look around.

“Yeah, but afraid of what?” Twilight asked.

“M-m-m-maybe it’s z-z-z zzzzoombie-ponies?!” He shuddered.

“Highly unlikely.” Frosty answered.

“Unlikely… but not IMPOSSIBLE!”

Twilight just rolled her eyes at Spike’s antics and continued onwards towards her library, with Frosty following her. However, as they passed Sugarcube Corner, they were suddenly called upon by a hushed voice.

“Twilight! Spike! Come here!” Pinkie whisper-called from the door of the confectionery.

“Pinkie?” Twilight went closer to the door, where Pinkie was sporadically hopping up to look out.

“Hurry! Before she gets you!”

Pinkie opened the door and Twilight and Frosty quickly sprinted inside, before the door was slammed shut again.

Suddenly, they were assaulted by a flashlight shining directly into their faces.

“Who?! The Zombie-Pony?!” Spike shivered, clamping down on Twilight, who was still rubbing her eyes.

“Zooombieee Poooonyyy?!” Pinkie asked dramatically, holding the flashlight into her own face.

As a reaction, Spike clamped down even harder on Twilight, making her yelp in surprise and give a scolding look at him.

“Spike! There are no Zombie-Ponies. Pinkie? What are you doing here Alone in the Dark™?” Twilight asked her.

“I’m not alone in the dark!” Pinkie answered, before pulling the curtains open a bit and illuminating the room, revealing the rest of the mane six, as well as Applebloom standing directly behind them.

“Hi, Frosty!” Applebloom greeted.

“Hi, Applebloom!” Frosty greeted back.

Suddenly, Frosty found all the attention lying on him.

“So you’re that new colt that Squirt has been talking about, huh?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously, hovering around and mustering him.

“Yeah, lemme introduce: That’s Fro-“ Applebloom started.

“Frosty.” Applejack interrupted.

“Oh, so Frosty is his actual name? I thought it was just a nickname or something.” Spike remarked.

“It is a nickname. His actual name is-“

“Not important.” Applejack interrupted again.

“Hi, Not Important! I’m Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie greeted, earning her a facehoof from Applejack.

“Ugh, no, Pinkie! Ah didn’t mean that it’s his name, but that you don’t need to know!”

“Awww… but why?”

“Yeah, why can’t ah tell ‘em his name?” Applebloom demanded.

“Because Ah’m sayin’ it!”

For a moment, Applebloom just stood there, flabbergasted. “WHAT?! That’s th’reason?! Y’all can’t be serious!” She protested, leading her and her sister into only one of many arguments.

And while the two sisters argued, Frosty found himself now not only being checked out, but also prodded and poked by Rainbow Dash.

“Are you a paedophile?” He asked her with a hint of annoyance.

“Heh, don’t get your hopes up, kid.” She quipped back at him, while hovering in front of him and putting a hoof to her chin. “Hmm, you’re pretty slim, but you’ve got potential. Your hips are quite strong though, but sadly you don’t have wings… Eh, overall I’d say it’s a ‘maybe’.”

“Hmm… Your mane style is a bit simple, but it’s fashionable. I think a fedora would look quite good on you…” Rarity joined in. “Plus, Sweetie said that you’re quite the gentlecolt and that you are very good at school, so… I’d agree with Rainbow’s ‘maybe’, although with a tendency to ‘Okay’.”

“An ‘Okay’ for what?” Frosty asked demandingly, to which Rarity gave a short chuckle, before answering him.

“Oh, darling, you don’t need to hide it. Three fillies and a colt being just ‘friends’ and that with your age? Everypony knows that there’s always something more and as a big sister, I have to gauge your fitness as a coltfriend.”

“Aaaaalright, can we PLEASE get back on topic?” Twilight suddenly interrupted. “We have been sitting here for, what, five minutes? And we still don’t know what you’re all doing here!”

“We’re hiding!” Pinkie suddenly squeaked from behind Twilight.

“Yeah, that much was obvious, but why?” Frosty pressed.

“We’re hidin’ from her!” Applejack pointed out, while opening the curtains fully, revealing a hooded equine standing in the street and looking around.

Everypony in the room gathered at the window, with Applebloom standing directly beside Frosty. It was then that these weird feelings came back again. She looked at him and she suddenly felt pulled to him – literally. She scooted closer, hoping that he wouldn’t notice, until her side was pressed against his and she came to realize, just how good it felt for her, to just lean against him like this and feel his warmth radiating into her.

Frosty noticed this, of course, but he didn’t mind it one bit. Why would he? After all, this all meant that his plan was actually coming along… that and he was still a man after all and what kind of man doesn’t like the feeling of a woman leaning against him? Still, he tried not to focus on it too much, instead focusing on what stood outside.

The moment he looked out again, the hooded figure dropped her hood, revealing the zebra mare that stood underneath. In response, everypony except Applebloom, Twilight and him flinched away and took cover behind the curtains.

“Looks like a zebra to me.” Frosty said blandly.

“A WHAT?!” Pinkie shrieked dramatically.

“A Zebra. You know, the inhabitants of Saddle Arabia and southern Equestria?” Twilight explained, earning her only a wide array of confused stares.

“Oh come on, you can’t tell me you’ve never heard of Zebras before, if even a young colt like Frosty knows them!” She complained.

“There ain’t no need knowing ‘em if they’re all like that there Zecora!” Applejack protested.

“So her name is Zecora, huh? Well, what did this Zecora do that you’re so wary of her?” Twilight asked.

“Well, every once in a while, she comes into town…” Applejack started

“Yeah?”

“She goes from shop to shop and looks into the windows…” Rarity continued.

“Oh bother…” Frosty cut in sarcastically.

“And then she stands in the street…” Pinkie went on.

“Oh no, really?” Twilight sarcastically remarked.

“And she digs around with her hoof!” Rainbow finished.

“…… That was it?” Frosty asked after nopony continued the story.

“Euh, yeah, pretty much.” Applebloom confirmed.

To that, Frosty looked over to Twilight with a deadpan look. “I don’t know about you, but to me this all sounds like a major case of xenophobia…”

“I think so too… really girls, what’s come over you?”

“What’s come over US?! That there varmint’s cursin’ you if y’all jus’ come close to her!”

“Has that been tested?” Frosty demanded.

“What?” Applejack asked, looking slightly taken aback.

“Has anypony actually been cursed?” Twilight rephrased.

Nopony said anything for a while, instead suddenly fining interest in various objects around the room.

“Thought so… Well, it doesn’t seem like we’re getting anywhere, so I’m going to do it myself.”

Frosty walked over to the door, but just as he wants to open it, Applejack called out to him.

“Frosty, where do y’all think you’re goin’?”

He turned around and faced the rest of the room, his face already contorted in annoyance. “The cure to xenophobia is usually a first contact. However, since none of you are going to take that step, I am going to do that myself.”

He turned back and opened the door. However, just as he passed the doorframe, Applejack lunged forwards and tried to grab him by his tail.

“Oh no, ya won’t!”

… Only to be stopped by a purple aura forming around herself. She glared over to Twilight, but quickly noticed that her horn was inactive and that she was looking at Frosty with wide eyes. Applejack followed her gaze and saw that Frosty’s horn was the one that was active. He was standing just a few inches past the doorframe and looked directly at her, his gaze penetrating her very soul and making her momentarily forget her fear about Zecora. At that moment, she felt like her life was actually in danger, just by being looked at in that very way, his gaze projecting a kid of anger that can only be founded on years and years filled with bad experiences.

“I will be completely honest with you, Applejack.” Frosty suddenly spoke. “I can tolerate simply being afraid of the unknown. I can also fully understand when one is reluctant to indulge too much in other cultures, but what you are doing here is plain and outright xenophobia. Worst of all, none of you even seems tempted to change anything about it, which is just outright disgusting.”

Applejack was suddenly freed of the magical grip holding her in place, making her fall flat onto the ground. Frosty continued his way to Zecora, establishing a first friendly contact between the town and the Zebra mare.

This once, he neither had to lie, nor feign his emotion…

Author's Note

Took me a bit longer to write this one, but in the end, I got it done. Yay. Oh, and just so you know: this is last week's chapter, so there will (hopefully) be another this week.

Showbiz is Magic

Monday rolled around again and so did another day of school. Another day spent sitting around in a class that couldn’t teach him anything anymore, another day spent being annoyed by Diamond Tiara in the breaks and another day spent absolutely baffling Cheerilee with acing a surprise test without having ever paid attention. Of course, that wasn’t really that much of a surprise, given his actual age, but Cheerilee didn’t know that.

When they left the school building that day, Frosty already had the CMC walking by his sides and since he didn’t plan on going to the Everfree that day anyways, he didn’t do anything about it. After all, part of his plan was to keep a good relation to them, wasn’t it?

Still, he needed to know, what exactly his touch did to ponies. He had already ‘tested’ it on the CMC, but they were too small of a testing group – both, in group and body size. Thus, he went into town square, where there would be plenty of ponies about and where he could certainly snatch a background pony or two without anyone noticing. He only needed a place to ‘store’ his test dummies… and he needed to somehow do that without the CMC noticing. In hindsight it probably wasn’t that much of a good idea to let them come along, but getting rid of them now would likely only cause them to ‘sneak’ along, so he had to either wait for a better opportunity or just postpone his tests.

“Come one, Come all! Come and witness the amazing magic of the GRRRRREAT and POWERFUL TRRRIXIE!”

Frosty stopped in his tracks, as he heard the shouting come from the town square. He looked over and spotted a familiar-looking stage cart.

“Alright, there go my last expectations regarding causality… but shouldn’t there be at least a few weeks between Trixie and Zecora?” Frosty mumbled to himself.

“What was that, Frosty?” Scootaloo asked from beside him.

“I said: There’s a travelling magician. Let’s go have a look!”

The CMC looked over to where Frosty was pointing, before they shared a glance and a smile.

“Sure. Sounds like fun.” Applebloom agreed.

They arrived at the stage just when Trixie was performing a few stage tricks. They slipped through the crowd and went to the very front row, where Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, Twilight and Spike were already standing.

“Hey sis!” Applebloom greeted, making the five older mares turn around.

“Heya Applebloom. So school’s over already? Huh.” She asked.

‘Obviously, yes. Twilight was brought here by Snips and Snails after all.’ Frosty thought to himself.

“Yep! We were followin’ Frosty around for… somethin’ and then he saw the cart, so we came ‘ere ta check it out.” The excited filly babbled.

“Oh, you wanna see that there magic show? Heh, well, ya can, but don’t take all that ‘great ‘n powerful’ too seriously.”

“Don’t worry sis! Ah know nopony can beat you!”

“If you find the GRRREAT and POWERFUL TRRRIXIE’s show really that boring then you can always go somewhere else, you know?” Trixie suddenly interrupted from behind them.

The group turned back around, to where a very annoyed-looking showmare was looking down at them.

“Pfff, yeah, ‘great and powerful’. What makes you more powerful than us, huh?” Rainbow asked, hovering before her and getting into her face.

“Well that is obvious, for only Trrrixie has the magic needed to vanquish the dreaded Ursa Major!”

The crowd responded with a collective ‘Ooh’, while Rainbow just huffed in disbelief.

“Pff, yeah sure ya did.” Applejack dismissed.

Trixie looked on in annoyance. “Well, I see there are still voices of doubt. Very well, I challenge you to come up here and out-perform me, the GREAT and POWERFUL TRRRRIXIE!”

She looked over the crowd and waited for a moment, but nopony seemed to-

“Come on, sis! Git up there an’ show her!” Applebloom encouraged her sister.

“Ya bet ah will!”

Applejack jumped up onto the stage and performed a few lasso tricks. She spun it over her head, jumped through it, danced while spinning it around her and concluded with throwing it into an apple tree, catching an apple and pulling it directly into her mouth, where she gulped it down in one bite.

Frosty looked over to Applebloom. “Hey, Applebloom, does your sister have a coltfriend?”

“Eh, no… why yer askin’?”

“Because, for a single mare, she can open her jaws pretty wide.”

Immediately, Frosty found himself fixed by death-glares from every mare that could hear him, as well as three confused stares by the CMC.

“Ah, what a meagre show. Let TRRRIXIE show you, how it’s done.”

Trixie levitated one end of the lasso up, letting it sway side to side like a snake and captivating Applejack with its movements. Meanwhile she levitated the other end over to the apple tree and grabbed another apple, which she then levitated over Applejack’s head. Then, in the blink of an eye, she hogtied Applejack with her own lasso and stuffed the apple into her mouth.

The crowd laughed, while Applejack grumbled her way off the stage and the next challenger flew up.

“Heh, betcha can’t keep up with the awesome Rainbow Dash!” The Pegasus boasted, before zooming off into the sky, flying through two clouds and leaving holes in them, while condensing the vapour into water droplets mid-flight. She then turned back around, flying through the same holes she had left in them, dragging the water she had condensed earlier with her. She flew into the local windmill, spinning its wheel and catapulting herself back onto the stage, where she spread her wings wide and let the water droplets splash against them from behind, the fine vapour causing a rainbow to form above her.

“They don’t call me Rainbow Dash for no reason, you know?” She said smugly.

“You’re awesome, Dash!” Scootaloo cheered with the crowd, but Trixie seemed unimpressed.

“Pff, yeah, veeeeery impressive there, but still no match for Trrrixie. So, why don’t you just take your Rainbow and Dash off?”

She took the rainbow in her magic and wrapped it around Dash, before spinning her like a mini-tornado, leaving her sprawled on the ground a few meters away.

“Oh, so brash! Oh that just won’t do.” Rarity said as she went onto the stage next. “You don’t need to outperform her, darlings, when it is so much easier to just out-charme her!”

She ripped one of Trixie’s curtains from her stage and bound it around herself like a toga, while simultaneously giving herself a fitting manestyle.

“Hey! What are you doing with Trixie’s curtains?!” the showmare protested.

“Oh darling, don’t cry over such a cheap accessory. Really, such a good piece of cloth would be wasted just hanging around all day.”

Trixie grumbled, but calmed herself – at least to the outside. “Oh sure, come, let Trixie help you with your redesign.”

She took Rarity’s mane into her magic grasp, before, with a flash, she worked her magic.

“Oh, thank you, darling. Now, how do I look?” Rarity asked into the crowd.

Meanwhile, her friends stood there, flabbergasted.

“It’s, uh, gorgeous!” Twilight said sheepishly.

“Yeah, uh, looks amazing, Rares!” Rainbow agreed. “Like a – euh – like a lady at the gala!”

“Or a birch tree.” Frosty commented, earning him another round of death-glares.

“Birch tree?” Rarity asked, loosening a lock of hair and holding it before her face. She suddenly went even paler than she was anyways, letting out a terrified scream, before pulling a forehoof to her head and fainting.

“So, anypony else, who wants to challenge the GREAT and –“

“Dear Lord, we get it! No need to repeat that part over and over again!” Frosty shouted.

“Hmpf, fine, be that way.” Trixie huffed.

“Come on, Twilight! You can easily beat her!” Spike encouraged, but Twilight didn’t seem to share his enthusiasm.

“Oh, I don’t know, Spike. Didn’t you see, how those ponies reacted to her boasting? What will they do if they see me do the same?”

“Oh, come on, Twilight! That’s two completely different things!”

“I don’t know, Spike… I just… don’t feel comfortable doing it.”

“Oh, come on, you just need to try! Hey everypony, Twilight wants to—“

Twilight quickly clamped Spike’s mouth shut, but not fast enough to prevent gaining Trixie’s attention.

“So, you want to challenge Trixie?” She asked down at her.

“W-What, me? Heh, no euh, I-I think I hear my laundry going, bye!” Twilights stammered, before she quickly fled the scene.

“Thought so. It appears it has yet again been proven that Trrrixie is the most powerful Unicorn in Equestria.” Trixie claimed, before she retreated into her wagon and the crowd dispersed itself, leaving only Frosty and the CMC behind.

“So… what do we do now?” Scootaloo asked.

“Ah… I’m sorry, girls, but I have to help my sister get back to her hooves.” Sweetie said, pointing to her sister, who still lay fainted on the stage.

“In that case, I will also take my leave. I wanted to visit the library anyways, so this seems just like the time to do so.” Frosty said, before departing as well.

“But really, did she have to boast like that? I mean, she isn’t even really that special!” Spike complained, as he and Frosty walked through the streets later that evening. Frosty had spent the remainder of the day researching different spells and other applications for his magic, in case his necromancy ever failed him.

“Maybe not, but have you ever considered that her boasting might be part of the job?” Frosty pointed out.

“Why would boasting be part of the job?” Spike asked sceptically.

“Because she doesn’t need her audience to like her, she only needs to get their attention. When she boasts around like that, she achieves just that. To her, it doesn’t matter if you believe her and want to see for yourself or if you just want to see her fail. You want to see, that’s all she needs. If she can actually impress you with her show is another thing entirely. Primarily, she only needs to grab your attention.”

“Wait, does that mean that, even if Twilight went up there and kicked her butt, she still would’ve gained something from it?”

“Yep.” Frosty confirmed, to which Spike groaned to himself.

“Oh, ponyfeathers. Good thing she didn’t do it then.”

Their conversation didn’t go any further, as suddenly, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle came running towards them, screaming for their lives.

“Frosty, save us!!!” Sweetie screamed, before hiding behind him.

“Who, what, how?” Frosty was confused. Neither did he see them coming, nor did he know, what they were suddenly afraid of. That is, until he was suddenly remembered, how that episode ended in the show.

*ROAR*

A thundering roar echoed through the town, as from the end of the street, one could see a light blue mare and two unicorn colts being chased down the road by an enormous bear-like ethereal entity.

“Hide!” Frosty commanded, dragging the two fillies and one baby dragon with him into an alleyway, just before the beast and its prey sped past them.

“Oh no… did these two idiots really…? Oh no, they woke up an Ursa Major! What are we gonna do?!” Spike panicked, but before he could grow too distressed, Frosty plastered a hoof over his mouth and hushed him. He snuck a peek at the beast around the corner and whispered back to the group.

“Luckily not, it’s just a minor.”

“THAT was just a MINOR?!” Spike whisper-shouted in disbelief.

“Yeah. We should probably do something about it. Spike, think you can sneak around it and get Miss Twilight?” Of course, Frosty knew that, in theory, he would just need to go there, place himself in front of them and wait for the Ursa to pick up the scent and flee. However, that would also mean exposing himself to everypony that was present, which was a risk he wasn’t yet ready to take.

Spike looked around the corner at the beast, which by now had its prey cornered against the end of the street. He gulped and looked back at Frosty, who gave him a reassuring nod.

“A-Alright, I’ll try.” Spike said. He looked around the corner one last time, making sure that the beast was currently occupied. When he was sure that the Ursa wouldn’t spot him, he sprinted across the street and quickly vanished behind the buildings, before the Ursa could notice.

“So, that leaves only the waiting game for us.” Frosty said, only now noticing that Sweetie had been pressing herself against him this entire time.

“Hey, Sweetie, we’re safe now. No need to stick so close to me anymore.” He told her.

Sweetie only now noticed what she had been doing this entire time and quickly pulled back, her face flushing deep red.

“So, how’s it lookin’ over there?” Scootaloo asked, pointing down the street. “Did they get eaten yet?”

“No, but they’re about to…” Frosty answered, nervously checking for Spike, but coming up empty.

“We can’t let them get eaten! We have to do something!” Sweetie Belle protested.

“And what would that be? I don’t know what you have in mind, but I don’t know what we could do.” Scootaloo told her.

Sweetie looked nervously to the ground. She had hoped that the others would have an idea. “Please! Frosty, do you have an idea?”

“…I might know a way, but…” Frosty murmured.

“Then why don’t you do something?!”

Frosty stood there silent, contemplating. He, of course, didn’t want to be discovered just yet, but at the same time, it would be almost as disadvantageous to him if he would lose the trust of even just one of the CMC.

‘Uuuuugh, fuck it, I can come up with some kind of excuse… hopefully.’

“Agh, alright, but you have to promise that you don’t ask any question afterwards, okay?” Frosty demanded.

Sweetie froze for a moment. Why would he not want her to ask questions afterwards? But she was quickly shaken out of her stupor by another roar of the beast.

“Okay, we promise! Right, Scootaloo?”

“Euh, yeah, yeah, promise!” Scootaloo confirmed.

“Good.” Frosty ran off, sprinting towards the Ursa just as it raised its paw to stomp those who disturbed its slumber. He dashed through beneath the beast, placed himself directly in front of it and shouted: “Hey you giant teddy! I’m down here!”

The Ursa spotted Frosty and, upon doing so, set down its paw and roared directly into his face. However, when it brought its snout closer to him, it immediately picked up his scent, as well as the scent of death that surrounded him.

Its eyes went wide and its pupils shrank to pinpricks, as it stared down at, what accounted to a monster in its perspective.

“Boo.” Frosty said and as an immediate reaction, the Ursa turned around and fled down the street with a terrified whimper.

Frosty turned around to Trixie, Snips and Snails and looked them over. They seemed to be unharmed, albeit very terrified.

“Frosty! You did it!” Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle cheered from behind him as they came galloping towards him. “You actually vanquished an Ursa Minor!”

“Yeah… H-How did you do that?” Trixie asked in astonishment.

“That’s what I was going to ask.” Suddenly a voice said from beside him. Frosty spun around and saw that Twilight had finally arrived… just in time to see him blow his cover… great.

“Spike came to me completely out of breath, saying something about an Ursa in town and when I came here to see for myself, I see said Ursa miserably whimpering and fleeing. What in Celestia’s name happened here?”

“Yeah, well…” Frosty started. He quickly had to come up with an excuse for this whole mess! “Umm, do you remember, when we read up on Ursas together? It said there that they are afraid of the scent of death…”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah and I… kiiiinda go to the graveyard every now and then, so I probably reek of death like a corpse?”

‘Alright, that was an outright lie, but at least neither Applebloom, nor Applejack are here to disprove it.’

“Uhuh. And why do you do that?” Twilight asked curiously.

‘Damn, I didn’t think she would ask! Ugh, maybe I can evade?’

“I… I would like to keep that one for myself. It’s… very personal.” Frosty said, hoping to convince her to drop it.

“Oh… Oh, I’m – I’m sorry. I just… thought it might be something cultural.“ Twilight said, turning away in slight embarrassment. “Anyways, you should probably go home now. It’s pretty late already, not to mention that your sisters will be worried.” She spun around and pointed towards the two colts who were trying to sneak away. “And you two have a lot of trouble on you now, you know?”

“Euuh, yeah, I think it’s time to leave.” Frosty said, as Snips and Snails got themselves a fresh helping of a Twilight brand lecture.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo nodded in agreement and followed his example, as he made his way back home.

Preparations

Having successfully averted the destruction of Ponyville, Frosty was glad to see that, apparently, nopony noticed that they had nearly died last night. Seriously, if either Applebloom or worse, Applejack, had gotten word of that, he would’ve probably wished that he actually had died.

Sadly though, even though she didn’t know about Frosty being the one who chased off the Ursa (yet), she did know that he came home late yesterday. Thus, he found himself spending the next morning tending to the garden and the animals.

‘Meh, could’ve been worse’ he thought to himself and Applebloom didn’t seem to mind either. Quite the opposite, she had actually volunteered to help him and even seemed so motivated about it that ‘eager’ didn’t even cut it anymore.

Naturally, Frosty knew the cause for this: the spell, he had apparently put on them when he touched them. He couldn’t be quite sure yet, if it was the actual effect or just a side-effect, but apparently, all three of the crusaders had fallen in love with him shortly after… or, no… it wasn’t until they laid eyes on him that the spell apparently took effect…

‘I definitely have to put some research into that as soon as there’s a day that’s not all-too exciting…’ He thought, already noting that that likely meant ‘never’, going by Ponyville’s track record.

In the meantime, though, he could work on and with what he already had, namely the crusaders. The problem with that would only be: should he be the one to make the first move or should he wait for them to come out first? It could be that they weren’t ready yet and were just waiting and trying to determine their own feelings, after all… or they were waiting for him to make a move and he was currently risking losing their affection… in any case, he would need to—

“WATCH OUT DOWN THERE!!!” Suddenly called a voice from above, that somehow sounded familiar.

Applebloom immediately dove out of the way as soon as she heard the call. Frosty, however, made the mistake of turning around and looking first and the only thing he came to see was a blue and rainbow blur, before he found himself rolling across the ground.

When the tumbling stopped, he found himself laying splayed out on the ground underneath somepony, with something soft and fleshy pressing against his muzzle.

“Frosty, are you okay?” he heard Applebloom ask from his side, to which he could only give a muffled answer.

“Hmmf hmmf hmm” (I’m o-kay)

His mumblings were showing an immediate effect, as they caused whoever was lying atop him to… moan (?!) in surprise and shoot up into a hover in front of him. That’s when he identified her as Rainbow Dash… who was sporting a fierce blush and was holding her forelegs between her hind ones, all while staring at Frosty with her eyes as wide as dinner plates. And now, Frosty also knew what it was that he was feeling against his muzzle.

‘Oh… OH!!!’ He thought, slowly growing just as red as Rainbow.

Meanwhile, Applebloom stood off to the side, looking back and forth between the two. “What’s going on? Did I miss something?” She asked, looking at Rainbow, who immediately crossed her forehooves before her chest and looked away to hide her blush.

“No, nothing, nothing at all.” She claimed.

Meanwhile, Frosty was having a problem of his own. ‘No, bad bloodstream, BAD BLOODSTREAM!! Quick, think something unerotic! Euh… euh… that time, when we had to clean the cowshed! Yeah, how we first argued about who would get to clean upstairs and Scootaloo came out on top… how the whole floor was full with… whatever that was… the way Sweetie looked, when Scootaloo kicked over a bucket of milk and… …Oh, bollocks.’

Frosty was close to panicking, as he tried and failed to tame his masculinity that was now threatening to leave the confines of its sheath. ‘Oh no! Quick, a distraction!’ He thought to himself.

“Ain’t lookin’ like nothin’.” Applebloom stated. “What were ya even doin’ out ‘ere?”

Quicker than Frosty would have ever imagined possible, he saw Rainbow’s demeanor change from flustered and/or utterly embarrassed to an over-excitement that almost rivalled Pinkie’s.

“The best young flyers competition is coming around next month! Didn’t you know that?! Oh, wait… yeah, forget I asked. Anyways, I’m definitely going to take first place!”

“Oh, the best young flyers! Heh, I bet Scootaloo would love to see you partake!” Frosty said, already coming up with a way to use the event to his advantage. “Heck, I bet, she’d even love to be here now and watch you train.”

“Heh, yeah, she’d probably like that. Too bad her wings won’t carry her all the way up there…” Rainbow mused. “Well, anyways, I better get back to it. Can’t let these muscles cool down too much.”

“Well, ya ain’t seemin’ so cold the way yer hind legs‘re sweatin’.” Applebloom noted innocently.

“Sweating? What are you…” She looked back down and immediately went pale, as she saw what Applebloom actually meant. “Eh… heh, no, that’s… euh, anyways, gottagetbacktotraining, BYE!” She stammered, before quickly zooming off with her face glowing red as lava.

“Did ah say something weird?” Applebloom asked after a moment.

“Nope, not at all, Applebloom. Not at all.” Frosty assured with a light chuckle, before getting back to his chores.

When the sun was done with its ascend, so was Frosty with his chores. Who could’ve known that simple garden work could take half a day? Simple: those who were actively delaying their progress. After all, simple tasks are a good way to keep your body busy, while your brain is occupied with something else, that something in this case being forming a sound plan for the best young flyers competition.

Frosty knew that he could definitely take advantage of the things that were (hopefully) still bound to happen there. Of course, it was a risk to rely on things just going well, but it was a risk he had to take.

As he was thinking, he was making his way down toward Twilight’s Library, where he hoped to at least verify if Rainbow’s friends were going to cheer for her. That and he needed a spell or two, which he hoped Twilight could teach him.

On his way into town, he passed the destroyed school building, which was now being worked on and smirked a little at the sight. It wasn’t at all his plan to have the Ursa flee through the school yard, but he wouldn’t really say that he didn’t like the result either. He knew that it was a bad thing for the other foals, but he was glad that he was finally free of this useless rewind of his schooltime… At least until they’ve fixed the giant hole in the middle there.

A bit of wandering later, Frosty reached the town, which seemed to be bustling with activity today. No wonder, seeing as it was market day. Luckily for him, his small form was perfect for navigating crowds, as it allowed him to simply weave through the other ponies’s legs and even risk a glance past some of the mare’s tails.

‘God damn, why do I keep getting these urges all of a sudden? Was it because of Rainbow this morning? Oh, please don’t tell me that I have to go through puberty again! Spontaneously popping a boner in the middle of the market would be the last thing I’d want. Especially since there are no pants covering my privates, this time around!”

He forced himself to look downward, away from anything that may trigger an unwanted response, as he continued his journey through the marketplace. He breathed a sigh of relief, as he finally cleared the crowd and quickly continued his trek, lest he be tempted to look back.

He reached the Library without any further incidents, although he can’t deny that he took up the pace a little, when it finally got in sight. However, when he was knocking on the door, he did not expect to be greeted by a former showmare.

“Grrreatings! And welcome to TRRRRRRRRRRIXIE’s Library!” She greeted, as she yanked the door open, looking around to see who knocked. She was just about to go back inside, thinking she misheard, when she noticed Frosty lying off to the side with a big, red mark on the side of his head.

“Ooooh…” Trixie winced when she saw the young colt lying in the dirt, before turning around and sheepishly calling out: “Ehm, Twilight? Trixie thinks it happened again…”

“So, you’re working as an assistant now?” Frosty asked, as he sat in Twilight’s Living area, together with her and Trixie and a cup of hot chocolate.

“No. TRRRRIXIE… is only here for a part-time job, until her wagon is fixed and I can start travelling again.” The showmare answered. “Which reminds Trixie: How did you scare it away? Trixie had tried, but even I couldn’t do it!”

Frosty set down his cup and smirked at the mare. “To this question, I will give an answer that you’re likely already familiar with.”

“Oh, let me guess: Lots of practice? ‘Cause that’s what Twilight said when Trixie asked…”

“Well, actually I was going to say ‘A magician never tells his secrets’, but that works too, I guess? Although, I’d like to know, how Mrs. Twilight would know.” He said, looking over at Twilight, who just waved her hoof.

“What she meant is that she had asked me about how I keep so many spells running all at once, to which I then replied ‘Lots of practice’.”

“Ah… well, speaking of practice: I had a little run-in with Mrs. Dash this morning. She said that she was practicing for the upcoming `Best Young Flyers Competition’, which is why I am here. You wouldn’t happen to know a spell which would allow me to take Scootaloo up to Cloudsdale? I’m sure she’d love to see her idol fly.”

“Oh, if you want to come, you can just come with us! The girls and I were going to cheer for her anyways.” Twilight offered.

“That would be nice, yes. Thank you very much, Mrs. Twilight.” Frosty thanked. “Actually, on that note, I wanted to ask if you could teach me some kind of a parachute spell or something like that? Not that I don’t trust your magical abilities, but I seem to have made it a habit to get into trouble lately and I would like to avoid said trouble being me falling out of Cloudsdale.”

“Awww, is the little colt afraid of heights?” Trixie taunted.

“Better safe than sorry, Trixie. You’ve learned that first hoof, remember?” Twilight cut in. “And yes, of course I have a spell for that. I’ll go get it and we can start the first lesson right away!”

She beamed with enthusiasm, as she got up and quickly went over to the stairs leading down into the library before Frosty stopped her.

“Oh, I’m very sorry, Mrs. Twilight, but I didn’t mean right now.” He told her, earning him a somewhat displeased look from the unicorn. “It’s not that I don’t want to learn right now. It’s just that there’s a crusader meeting scheduled in a few minutes, so I have to go now.”

“Oh. Okay then, but one thing before you go: Don’t tell Rainbow just yet. It’s supposed to be a surprise.” She told him with a wink.

“Got it. See you tomorrow, Mrs. Twilight!” He called, as he exited the Library.

“You want me to what?” Frosty asked in disbelief, when he heard the crusader’s request.

“I want you to take control of me like you did with that Manticore in the Everfree!” Scootaloo said confidently.

“Well… I wanted to test if I can control ponies like that anyways, but… why do you want me to test it on you?”

“Scootaloo said that maybe seein’ somepony use their talent can help us find ours. Ah dunno how that would work, but ah guess it’s worth a try…” Applebloom said.

“O… kay?” Frosty acknowledged. He turned to Scootaloo again and looked her in the eyes. “And you are definitely sure that you want that?” He asked her again.

“Yes! Come on now! Try flapping my wings!” Scootaloo commanded.

Slightly confused by the sudden specific request, he decided to do as he was asked. Closing his eyes, in order to avoid them seeing his Necromancer-eyes, he concentrated on Scootaloo’s wings and killed only the muscles inside, taking control over them shortly after. As soon as he did this, he noticed that... he could suddenly see, even though his eyes were closed! He looked around and noticed that he could see himself! Through Scootaloo’s eyes! He tried flexing the muscles in her body and found that he, sadly, only had power over her wings, which he tried flapping. After a while of pointless buzzing, he pulled back, allowing her body to retake the converted muscle mass.

As soon as he left her body, Scootaloo broke down, crying in pain. “AAAH, IT HURTS!” She screamed, while her wings were buzzing furiously and her eyes were dripping with tears.

Her friends, including Frosty, were quickly by her side, trying to help her somehow. Unfortunately, they could do nothing other than wait until the pain wore off.

When it eventually did, Frosty stepped before her and bowed down. “I’m sorry, Scootaloo.” He apologized. “I didn’t know it would be painful.”

Scootaloo was panting, worn out by the earlier experience. “It’s… It’s okay, Frosty. I wanted to try that.” She looked back at her wings and gave a light buzz with them, her expression growing saddened as she saw them uselessly flapping against the air. “And I had hoped that you could somehow get me to fly…”

“So… you actually just wanted to try if I could make you fly?” Frosty repeated.

“Yeah. You know, the Best Young Flyers Competition is coming up and Dash is participating. I thought that maybe I could watch her, but for that, I would first need to fly there…” Scootaloo let her head hang, a few tears escaping her eyes, as she was starting to sob again.

“Actually, I`ve got great news for you. I kinda knew that you would want to watch, so I asked Twilight, if they could take us with them. What do you say, do you want to come?” Frosty asked, already knowing the answer he would get.

Scootaloo quickly perked up when she heard this. “Are you kidding?! Of course I want to come!”

“Hey, me too!” Applebloom protested.

“Me three!” Sweetie Belle chimed in.

Frosty quickly found himself cornered by three excited fillies, looking at him expectantly. “Well, I doubt that we would weigh the balloon down too much, so-”

Before he even finished the sentence, he was cut off by a loud, simultaneous ‘YAY!’ from all three fillies, followed by a rib-crushing group hug. Well… All in all not that bad of a predicament to end a day in, right?

Author's Note

When proofreading this, me and my editor had to really pull ourselves together because some passages in this chapter are so unintentionally suggestive. XD

The Best Young Fallers Competition

The morning sun rose yet again over the small town of Ponyville. Though, what seemed like a normal day for most of the Ponyvillians, for two of them it certainly wasn’t. Rainbow Dash made haste to make herself presentable for once, as today, she would definitely be the centre of all attention. After all, today was the day of the Best Young Fliers Competition!

Frosty shared her excitement, although not for the same reasons. For him, this was a very important day as well. It was time to take another step towards his end goal.

Applebloom was apparently just as excited as he was, if not even more. Even before Frosty had even put a hoof out of bed, she was already banging at his door, calling for him to hurry up.

“Good grief, Applebloom. The Competition doesn’t start until this afternoon, calm down!” Frosty chuckled, as he went past her into the bathroom and took a shower.

However, Applebloom completely ignored what he had said, instead pushing him and her sister out of the door as soon as Frosty was out of the shower.

“Applebloom, for Celestia’s sake, what’s gotten yer so excited?” Applejack asked in irritation, as she and Frosty walked down the dirt road towards Ponyville, with Applebloom bouncing circles around them like Pinkie normally would.

“Did ya ferget, sis? We’re goin t’ Cloudsdale!” Applebloom squee’d, before continuing her bouncing and chanting “♫We’re goin’ t’ Cloudsdale, We’re goin t’ Cloudsdale!♫”

“We? Did Ah’ miss somethin’?” Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow at Frosty.

“Scootaloo wanted to cheer for Rainbow Dash, but due to her wing problem, she can’t fly up to Cloudsdale on her own. Thus, I asked Miss Twilight, if we could come along.” Frosty answered. “Which reminds me that we still need to pick her up from her home along the way.”

The three did just that, making a slight detour to Scootaloo’s, with Applebloom still imitating Pinkie all the way until they reached the Library. The others were already waiting there, save for Rainbow and Fluttershy, who was accompanying her. Sweetie was also present, having been brought along by her older sister and quickly joining her friends as they arrived.

“Good, it seems now everypony’s here.” Twilight began. “Before we start though, I have to put a spell on all of us, since only Pegasi can walk on clouds. It’s a spell that allows a pony to fly for three days. There’s only one minor issue.” She looked away, slightly ashamed. “I didn’t have an opportunity to test the spell until now, because somepony didn’t want to help!” She hissed, glaring at Trixie, who stood off to the side.

“Hmpf, you seem to forget that Trixie is a showmare and not a test dummy!” Trixie huffed.

“In that case, I volunteer.” Rarity stepped forward.

“Really? You don’t have to, you know?”

“Darling, if it’s for one of my friends then I am more than willing to give it a try.” Rarity reassured.

Twilight nodded nervously, before pouring magic into her horn. Multiple bright streams of magic enveloped Rarity and lifted her slightly into the air. She started to glow. So much so that everypony else had to look away to avoid being blinded.

When the light finally ceased and everypony looked back at her, Rarity was still suspended in the air, albeit not carried aloft by magic, but by two translucent butterfly wings that had grown on her back.

“Whooo-ey, Rarity! Those wings look mighty fine, Ah tell ya!” Applejack complimented.

“Yeah, very… fair… Applejack. Compliment the recipient… but not the… creator.” Twilight panted. It was clear that the spell had taken much more out of her than she had anticipated.

“Oh, uh, sorry sugarcube.” Applejack said sheepishly. “That was some amazing work.”

“Indeed, darling. These wings are truly fabulous!” Rarity complemented.

“Thanks, Rarity. Just be careful with them, okay? They are only made of morning dew and magic, so they’re very fragile.” Twilight said, having caught her breath a little by now. “And it’s very difficult to cast, so… this may take a while.”

“If it’s so difficult, why don’t you just cast cloudwalking spells on all of us and then get us up there with the balloon?” Frosty asked, turning the attention of everypony on him.

“Euh, yeah, that should work too…” Twilight said sheepishly.

And so, after just a minimal amount of additional magic effort, Twilight had successfully equipped everypony with cloudwalking spells. They all climbed into the balloon, apart from Trixie, who decided that she would rather guard the library than come to Cloudsdale and Rarity, who used her newly acquired wings to fly ahead.

Slowly gaining altitude, the seven ponies inside the basket enjoyed the view their height gave them. Well… at least as much as they could. While the three adults in the group could easily look over the edge of the basket, the four foals had difficulty doing so, thus being forced to look through the tiny gaps in the basket itself. Needless to say, this granted them very little of a downward view. However, this also meant that they were the only ones paying attention to what was above them and were thusly the only ones that were prepared when the balloon broke through the cloud cover and coated everypony in a thin coat of water.

The CMC went into a gigglefit when they saw the surprised faces of the older mares and even Frosty couldn’t suppress a chuckle. The sudden surprise made Twilight almost forget about releasing the hot air again to start their descent.

As soon as the balloon set down on the cloud, they immediately spotted the surprised Rainbow Dash standing right beside them and only becoming even more surpised when Pinkie jumped out of the basket onto the cloud and didn’t fall through. After a quick explanation from Twilight, Rainbow and Fluttershy offered a trip around Cloudsdale, which was gladly accepted.

The architecture of the city reminded Frosty a bit of ancient Greek buildings, what with all those pillars and all the white going on there, although the shops seemed more modern, with wide front windows, which Rarity gladly used to check out her own reflection.

They reached the weather factory and quickly decided that they very well still had enough time for another tour, so they quickly slipped into the safety garments and went inside. Their first stop was the snowflake-wing, where every single snowflake was hoof-made, according to Rainbow Dash. Though Frosty highly doubted that, as that would mean that – even if the snowflakes here were far larger than on earth – each square metre of ground would need thousands of these and making them all per hoof would likely take MULTIPLE years.

“Well, magic.” Frosty thought, deciding that he shall apply the same rule as with Pinkie Pie.

Of course, Rarity had to use her new wings, even though even Rainbow Dash was staying on the ground and, as any normal creature with good enough foresight could have guessed, the winds from her flapping sent what was probably half a year worth of work, flying across the room.

“Uhh… we should probably get moving again…” Rainbow said nervously as the whole room went into a panic.

Next was the rainbow factory (shudder), where Pinkie, of course, had to take a taste of the freshly made rainbow. Needless to say, it wasn’t very tasty.

“Yeah, rainbows aren’t really known for being tasty, you know?” Rainbow commented.

Shortly after she made that comment, however, they heard a voice from the other end of the room. It were three Pegasi who were following and complimenting Rarity for her wings, drawing even more attention to them. Rainbow seemed at first annoyed at Rarity’s antics, but as more and more ponies gathered, she became nervous.

They were cheering for Rarity, making her subconsciously slowly gain altitude until she was hovering in front of one of the many windows. The sun shone directly through her wings, casting rainbow light throughout the room and impressing the crowd even more.

“Wow, such beauty!” One of the mares commented.

“You should definitely enter the best young flyers competition!” Another shouted, earning wide agreement among the crowd.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash’s nervousness grew exponentially. Even though it was irrational, self-doubt grew within her at the sight of the crowd Rarity had amassed. If she, a completely unexperienced flier could already entertain a bigger crowd than Rainbow could even attract, how should she keep up with the actually experienced flyers?

Thoughts like these were a heavy blow to Dash’s morale, making it increasingly difficult for her friends to keep her motivated. Yet, time doesn’t stop, as much as one would sometimes like it to and so, with her stage fright on an all-time high, Rainbow led her friends to the stadium, where the competition took place.

As they took their seats, Frosty took care to place himself as far to the front as possible, in order to make the execution of his plan easier. Rarity, to the horror of Rainbow Dash, had actually chosen to enter the competition, leaving the group together with Rainbow to prepare for their turns.

None of them were surprised, when Rarity’s number was called, but nopony stepped out. Instead, the commentator said something about ‘minor issues with the contestant’ and moved on to the next number… and the next… and the next… and the friends started to wonder, when Rainbow will get her turn, as they all remembered clearly that her position was one of the first five.

Of course, Frosty knew what was going on. Rainbow was secretly switching her positions with those of the other ponies in the waiting room, thus hoping to buy more time, but ultimately only delaying the inevitable.

Finally, the last number was called and out stepped Rainbow Dash… and Rarity, who had finally managed to ready herself up and apparently didn’t know what these numbers were for, but that was fine… for Frosty at least.

Both started their show simultaneously, but while Rarity seemed to gain the attention of the crowd almost instantly, Rainbow seemed to go almost completely unnoticed, which was likely the best for her, seeing as her nervousness caused her to make a ton of mistakes.

Finally, it was time for the climax of both shows. Rainbow readied up for her attempt at a sonic rainboom, now finally noticing that nopony was paying attention to her. She looked around and spotted Rarity, who was climbing higher and higher into the sunlight. Frosty’s heartrate rose as he saw the event that would be his mark inch closer and closer.

A small trail of smoke came from Rarity’s wings as she spread them out to scatter the sunlight into all the colours of the rainbow and then, the moment came.

Everypony gasped in shock, as Rarity went Icarus and plummeted towards the earth. The Wonderbolts were immediately hot on her tail, however her flailing made it difficult for them to even get close to her, even knocking them out in the end.

Rainbow spotted this and immediately went into action. She sped down with all her might, straining her wings to get just a little more speed. Just a tiny bit. A tiny bit that was enough to form a cone of compressed air before her head, which slowly grew bigger until, just before she reached Rarity and her unconscious saviours, a rainbow-coloured shockwave soared through the sky and a rainbow trail followed Rainbow’s path.

Only moments before Rarity would’ve hit the ground, she found herself caught and lifted into the air again by a cyan blur, followed by a rainbow streak.

Rainbow flew over the stadium in a wide arc, before coming in again through the bottomless floor and setting her friend and the Wonderbolts down on the clouds.

Now it was Frosty’s time to strike. Just before Rainbow could set down herself, he made her wings cramp up with a burst of his necromancy.

Rainbow gave a yelp of surprise and pain as it was now her turn to fall, eliciting another row of gasps from the crowd and yet another, as Frosty jumped right after her. However, only when he was already in the air did Frosty notice what he had brought upon himself, as his mind was overwhelming him with all the alarm bells it could possibly ring.

“Okay, calm down, just don’t look down and… fuck, I have to look down to see Rainbow Dash!” Frosty thought to himself, as he tried to force his fear back by solely focusing on Rainbow. He increased his speed by making himself as small as possible to lower his air resistance and only when he came closer, he slowed down again.

When he was close enough, he grabbed onto her, eliciting another surprised yelp from Rainbow. However, Frosty couldn’t hold himself on her back, instead sliding around to hang from her neck, where he found himself nor face-to-face with the panicking mare.

“Frosty?! What the tartarus are you doing here?!” She screamed with even more panic.

“Saving your life obviously!” Frosty said back.

“How?! You aren’t even a Pegasus! What were you thinking?!”

“Calm down, I need to concentrate. I can get you back up there, but, just as a heads-up: this is gonna hurt, so try to resist as little as possible.” He said, before closing his eyes and getting to work.

“Hurt? Resist? What the buck are—HNNG!” Rainbow wanted to ask, as she suddenly felt her control over her own body slipping away.

Frosty opened his eyes again and gave a few experimental flaps with his new wings, slowing his fall in the process. When he was sure that he had full control, he looked back down and saw that his own body was still falling.

“Oops, better make haste before I hit the ground…” He thought, turning upward with Rainbow’s body and flapping her wings. He could feel the fatigue in them drag heavily on his performance, but he luckily didn’t feel any pain. That was likely all forced upon Rainbow, which he felt genuinely sorry for. However, he had other problems to deal with at the moment, as he noticed that his necromantic energy was being drained faster than he had anticipated.

He strained her wings as much as he could in order to gain altitude faster, fighting against time, as his power got drained quicker and quicker. Finally, he reached the lower stadium and barely managed to place Rainbow over the cloud floor, when his necromantic energy ran out.

Quickly forced back into his own mind, Frosty gasped when his consciousness returned, but gave a satisfied smirk when he found his plan had succeeded.

“Perfect.” Her thought. “And now onto the last part.”

He called upon his normal magic to gather around his horn and form into a parachute. When he felt ready, he then released the spell, so the magic could form… nothing.

Slightly irritated, Frosty tried again… and again… but somehow, every time, it seemed like there wasn’t enough magic in him to form the spell, even though it had worked all those times before.

“Oh dear god NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” He screamed as he found the situation falling out of his control, just as he kept steadily falling towards the ground.

He tried again, again and again, but every time he failed.

“NO! You can’t do that to me! YOU CAN’---“

*phlat*

Rainbow panted as she fell the remaining few inches onto the cloud floor. Frosty had warned that it would hurt, yes, but never could she have expected so much pain. Her wings felt sore to the point that she almost couldn’t feel them anymore at all and her mind was throbbing like something or somepony had been sitting in there together with her.

And that was exactly the case, wasn’t it? Frosty had saved her life. He had taken control of her body, as it refused to listen to her and forced it to take her back to Cloudsdale.

“Rainbow!” She heard a familiar voice, as she looked up and saw her friends rushing towards her.

“H-Hey, girls.” She said weakly, far too exhausted for any more movement.

“Rainbow, are you okay? Are you hurt?” Twilight asked worriedly.

“N-no, I mean yes, but… everything… hurts.” Rainbow panted.

“Hold on, I’ve got this.”

Quickly, Twilight lit up her horn and cast some magic into Rainbow. The Pegasus immediately felt her tense and sore muscles relax and the pain subsiding. Tentatively, she tried getting up again, but only barely managed to get herself into a sitting position. At least that was better than to lay flat on the ground, though.

“Thanks, Twilight. I feel better already. Dear Celestia, that cramp really came unexpected. If it wasn’t for Frosty, I’d—“ she cut herself off and her eyes went wide as she noticed that she had almost forgotten something. “FROSTY!! Quick, we need to save him! He’s still falling!!!”

Rainbow wanted to dash off again, but Twilight held her back.

“Calm down, Rainbow.” She ordered. “Everything is fine.”

“No! It’s not! He’s falling to his death, Twilight!!”

“No, you don’t understand, I’ve taught him a parachute spell.” Twilight said, walking to the cloud’s edge and peering down. “Just watch, you’ll see a bright light any second now and then a big, purple dome will slowly float towards the ground.”

The others gathered around her and looked down, where one could still faintly see the colt’s falling form in the distance.

“Any moment now…” Twilight ensured.

“Can’t be long anymore…” She ensured again, growing slightly nervous.

“Come on… what’s taking him so long?” She asked herself, her nervousness rising quicker every second.

“Ah can’t see him anymore, Twi! Are ya sure that he’ll be fine?” Applejack asked, just as nervous as Twilight was.

“I can still see him, but he still hasn’t cast any magic, as far as I can see.” Fluttershy said, her and Rainbow’s Pegasus-eyes allowing them to see way better than the others.

But even Pegasus-eyes have their limits, as a few moments later, even Fluttershy and Rainbow couldn’t see him anymore.

Another few, tense seconds pass until suddenly, their eyes went wide, as they could faintly make out a rustle in the treetops below…

“Oh no…”

“…Ow…” Frosty groaned groggily as he regained consciousness. “I should really make a mental note to never do that again.” He said to himself, as he was lying on the forest floor and looked upwards towards the cloudcity floating above him in the blue sky…

…

“Wait a second, the sky? Didn’t I fall into a dense forest?” He asked himself, tilting his head slightly to the side and spotting a deep brown branch hanging above him, devoid of leaves… and devoid of life.

He tilted his head further and found that the dead branch belonged to a tree which looked just as dead. He quickly got back onto his hooves and looked around. His eyes widened, as he took in the scene before him.

In a wide circle around him, everything looked… dead. The grass looked like it had been burned, the trees and bushes had lost all their leaves and the wood itself was so brittle that a simple touch brought a whole tree crumbling down under its own weight.

And something else also caught his attention, when he focused on himself: Even though he was fairly certain that he had expended all of his necromantic energy, the ball inside of him was replenished.

“You don’t mean… Every time I die, I just suck the life force out of my surroundings? While that’d certainly be helpful in a few ways, I’d rather not test it out…” He thought.

Obviously, such a power also opens up quite a few new possibilities for him, like when surrounded, letting himself get killed on purpose in a kind of a Kamikaze-attack, which he would then actually ‘survive’ while his enemies didn’t. Though, such a course of action was likely neither particularly pleasant for him, nor was it really his style.

“Frosty!?” He heard shouting the distance, ripping him out of his internal monologue. He took another look at his surroundings, quickly coming to the conclusion that if he was to be seen in this mess, the chances of him getting out of this unharmed were likely very slim.

He turned into the direction the shouting came from and closed the distance in order to intercept them before they could get into viewing range of his impact zone. Luckily for him, they still seemed to be pretty far away, so he managed to get far enough away from the impact zone quickly enough.

The first he ran into were the CMC, who instantly tackled him into a hug the moment he came into view. Or, well, at least Applebloom and Scootaloo did. Sweetie Belle apparently wasn’t fast enough to join in. Not that it would’ve made a difference.

“Frosty! You’re okay!” Scootaloo shouted in joy as she buried her tear-stained face in Frosty’s chest.

Applebloom didn’t even manage to say anything, as she instead emptied her last drops of saltwater into Frosty’s fur.

“Of course I’m okay! Did you really think I’d do something like that without a plan?” Frosty grinned as he let them go, playing down his own panic attack that the three luckily hadn’t witnessed.

“Heh, of course. I knew you’d have a plan. You always have!” Scootaloo said, wiping a few last tears from her eyes as she and Applebloom gave Frosty a bit of space.

Sitting back up, Frosty looked at Sweetie Belle, who had been silently standing a few steps back with her head hanging low.

“Come here, Sweetie.” Frosty offered with his forehooves extended. “If these two were worried about me, I can’t even imagine what you went through.”

Sweetie slowly closed the distance and Frosty opened his forelegs further. However, when Sweetie finally reached him, she did something that none of them had expected.

Scootaloo’s and Applebloom’s eyes went wide, when Sweetie slapped Frosty once across the face.

“Firstly, Never, EVER, do something like that again.” She demanded forcefully. “And secondly…”

Scootaloo’s and Applebloom’s eyes went even wider when Sweetie suddenly lunged forward and pressed her lips forcefully against his, holding them there for a good few seconds, before collapsing against his chest.

“Secondly… please, PLEASE, never do something like that again…” she pleaded desperately, as she pressed her face into his chest and sobbed. “You don’t know how terrible it felt seeing you jump like that and then, when you fell and fell and fell… We didn’t know what to do. We could only stand there and watch as somepony so precious to us just fell to his death…” she cried.

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I know that losing a friend can be terrible, but—“

“NO! You don’t understand!” She interrupted him, jerking her head upwards and locking her sore eyes with his. “You’re so much more to us than just a friend, Frosty! You’re so kind and helpful and intelligent! You make us happy by just looking at us! Every second we spend with you is like the best day we’ve ever had! You’re not just a friend to us, we LOVE you, Frosty!” Sweetie blurted out, burying her face in his chest again.

Frosty was taken aback by that statement, even though he had already known. He looked over to Applebloom and Scootaloo, who were looking away with heavy blushes.

“Is that… is that true?” He asked in surprise.

“Y-yeah. Actually, we’ve all been feelin’ kinda weird ‘round you and we wanted t’ see what that feelin’ was… but yeah, ah think ah love you…” Applebloom said.

“Yeah, what she said.” Scootaloo agreed, still looking away.

Frosty, meanwhile, was speechless. He had planned out this very scenario and yet, right now, he was woefully underprepared. Although, such a situation held also something that was both, curse and blessing at once, as he didn’t need to choose a personality. Turns out that, no matter the amount of planning you put into this, nature always takes the upper hand and makes your choice for you.

“I… I… umm…” Frosty stuttered. “I—I think, I… I love you too…” Frosty confessed, although not quite truthfully. “I’ve known for quite a while and I meant to tell you, but I… I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.”

“Heh, really? That’s great!” Scootaloo said joyfully.

Then, silence ensued. A somewhat tense silence, where none of them really knew what to do.

“Sooooo… what do we do now?” Scootaloo asked, breaking the silence.

“I… I don’t actually know.” Frosty admitted.

“Maybe ya could… you know… kiss us too?” Applebloom asked tentatively, hiding a blush again.

Frosty looked over to Scootaloo, who, too, blushed at the idea, but kept her head forward this time and nodded. To this, Frosty said nothing, instead opening his hug around Sweetie again and spreading his forelegs a bit wider. Sweetie scooted a bit to the side to make room for her two friends, who then quickly came in, both receiving a peck to the lips by Frosty when they arrived.

“That tickles!” Scootaloo giggled. “So, what now?” She asked, looking at her two friends.

“How about we just stay like that for a moment?” Sweetie Belle offered, to which the other two agreed by simply burying their faces into Frosty’s chest.

Another moment of silence ensued, but this time, it was a content silence. A silence shared between fresh lovers and spent only enjoying each other’s proximity. Though, even moments like these have to come to an end, as Sweetie spoke up again.

“Frosty?” She asked.

“Hmm?”

“Can we please not tell our sisters yet?”

“Hmm? Why?” He asked slightly irritated. After all, his whole plan required telling their sisters or else he wouldn’t be able to exploit their sisterly bonds.

“Because I… I just… don’t feel comfortable about it yet…” Sweetie said.

“Well… I mean… what do the others think of that?” Frosty looked over to the other two, who were both nodding against his chest.

“Well, if it`s like that… sure, if you want to wait, we can wait.” He conceded, hiding his annoyance. Although… maybe this wasn’t too bad. After all, if he immediately went to their sisters to tell them, he could come off as a braggart, which would likely be counterproductive towards his plans. Maybe, taking the slow approach was for the best…

“Wait a sec, OUR SISTERS!” Applebloom suddenly remembered. “They’re probably searchin fer us!”

“Applebloom? Applebloom, where are ya?” A country-accented voice sounded through the forest.

“Scootaloo? Where did you run off to?” Another, raspier voice called.

“Sweetie? Are you there?” A third, more ladylike voice chimed in.

“Huh, in speak of the devil.”

“We’re over here!” Scootaloo called back. “We’ve found Frosty!!”

The calling stopped and was instead replaced by the sounds of galloping hooves that quickly came closer.

The first to break the bushline was Applejack, who immediately set eyes upon the four cuddling foals. Immediatley she went into a sprint towards Frosty, who was already preparing for a second slap across the face, when he was suddenly lifted up and pressed against Applejack’s fur.

“Oh thank Celestia, Ah thought we’d find ya as a pancake on the ground!”

“Heh, I told you he’d be okay.” Rainbow said calmly behind her.

“Uhh, weren’t you the one who dove down here the moment I fixed her wings again?” Twilight asked with a smirk.

“Uh, yeah, yeah, I, uh… As a future wonderbolt, I have to help ponies, you know? I just, you know, did my future job!” Rainbow defended.

“Of course you did.”

Twilight rolled her eyes and looked over to Frosty, noticing his strangely unharmed state.

“Though… forgive me that I’m asking, but… how did you survive?”

Frosty took a moment to gather his thoughts and to conjure a plausible-enough cover story.

“You know… after I got Rainbow back onto the clouds, I had barely any magic left. It was actually not even enough to keep the spell up for even a few seconds. So, what I did was cast a very small parachute, which slowed me down barely enough so that I didn’t get impaled by any branches and didn’t break any bones. The rest is just… up to pure dumb luck, I guess?” He said, close enough to the truth for Applejack not to notice. That or she was too busy hugging the life out of Frosty to really care.

“Alright… but what am I doing? You’re probably very tired now. We should really get back to Ponyville and maybe even get you to the hospital. Oh, what am I saying, DEFINITELY get you to the hospital!”

“Heh, yeah… that would likely be… for the best.” Frosty said unenthusiastically.

And so, they made their way back to Ponyville. The doctors at the hospital found no further injures, which Twilight immediately asked a thousand questions about, but upon Frosty’s suggestion, she decided to just be grateful for the gifts fate had given them. That and the short pause the hospital visit had granted her had made her realise, how tired she actually was.

And so, after a whole day of excitement, they all went to their respective houses and as soon as their heads touched their pillows, they all fell asleep.

Two royal guards flew over the Whitetail woods. A Pegasus had spotted something strange and they were sent to investigate, though what was waiting for them clearly surpassed their expectations.

The first signs that something was off came when they could see a patch of forest in the distance that wasn’t covered in leaves, although they could definitely see trees there. A few minutes later, they could see that there were also bushes, which also lacked any leaves to speak of. However, the true extent of the damage only became apparent, when they had almost reached the mysterious clearing.

Slowly, the baffled guards set down in the clearing, the charred blades of grass immediately turning to dust. The guards looked around, trying to comprehend what they were seeing, but utterly failing to do so.

“Sweet Celestia, what happened here?!”

A Taste of Fame

Frosty awoke late in the morning the next day, with a feeling of empowering heat in his chest. Even though he had barely the amount of energy stored that he would get from a single Manticore, he felt like that day when he had killed half the Everfree.

He went into the bathroom to freshen up a bit and take a shower, but on the way there, he noticed something strange. He could see the souls of Applejack, Apple Bloom and Big Mac not in their rooms or out in the orchard, but down in the main room, together with at least twenty other ponies.

He went out of the shower and down the stairs to investigate, but found the entire room devoid of any light. Of course, that didn’t mean that he could no longer see the souls, but it gave him an eerie feeling, as if something—

“SURPRISE!!!” Suddenly the lights went on and everypony in the room jumped up. Though the twenty-four others did it to surprise him, while Frosty did it because he was surprised, which in turn means that their surprise had worked.

“YEP, Pinkie-surprises ALWAYS work!” Pinkie Pie suddenly argued with the wall, as she popped up before Frosty.

“I- You- What?” Frosty stammered. “What in the world is going on?”

“It’s a surprise party fer ya, ‘cause you’ve saved Rainbow.” Applejack clarified, walking up beside Pinkie.

“Yeppers! We’re reallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyREAAAALLLY Thankful that you saved her! Dashie even said tha- hnngfhnngfhuffhmm” Pinkie blabbered, before getting shut up by Applejack’s hoof.

“Don’t ya spill the surprise, Pinkie! Rainbow oughta do that herself!” Applejack chided her with an almost devilish look.

“O-kay?” Frosty acknowledged insecurely. “So, where is she then?”

Applejack motioned to the far corner of the room with the hoof she had just taken from Pinkie’s muzzle and Frosty followed the point after a short exchange of looks with both mares.

In the corner that Applejack had pointed at stood all the remaining Elements, as well as the CMC, who tackled him the moment he came into view.

“Woah there, you three, no need to get greedy.” He said jokingly.

“Hey, we saw you fall to your death back there, so we’ve got to make sure that we aren’t dreaming.” Scootaloo said back.

“Didn’t y’all do that already back then?” Applejack chuckled, to which the three fillies suddenly and inexplicably sported very heavy blushes.

“Euh, y-yeah… that…” Scootaloo trailed off, which seemed to confuse Applejack a little.

“Aaaaanyways” Frosty quickly interjected. “Rainbow, Pinkie said… something? She didn’t really get to say anything, ‘cause Applejack stopped her, but at least she said your name, so what’s up?”

Rainbow shuffled nervously in place, looking first at Rarity and then at Twilight, who stood beside her. “Ah geez, do I really have to, Twilight? N-Now that I think about it, it’s kinda… not awesome.”

“Come on, you promised yesterday and—“

“You PINKIE-Promised!” Pinkie quickly interjected.

“…Yeah, as I said, you PINKIE-Promised that you’d do that, so now I guess, you’ll have to.” Twilight said with a giggle.

Looking back and forth between her friends, Rainbow then slowly walked towards Frosty. The CMC let go of him and let him stand up again before Rainbow got there and gave them a little space.

“Euh, h-hey, Frosty.” She said nervously.

“Hey, Rainbow. So, what was it you wanted to talk about?” Frosty greeted back.

“I, uh… you know I… UGH, oh, buck it!”

Frosty was about to ask ‘buck what?’, when Rainbow suddenly lunged forward and grabbed him into a rib-crushing hug.

“Thanks for saving me, Frosty. Really, that was totally awesome of you.” She said, while still holding him tight against her chest fluff.

Now that he found himself in close contact with an older mare, Frosty couldn’t help to think that, from the outside, this might look like Rainbow was cuddling with some kind of a plushy, given the size difference between them.

“You’re—huff – you’re welcome!” Frosty croaked out, his oxygen-supply running lower by the second, although he was not feeling as if he was suffocating, strangely enough.

“Oh, oh, sorry, I uh… I just… wanted to say thank you ‘n stuff, so, uhh…” Rainbow quickly pulled back after realizing Frosty’s predicament and looked to the floor, while stroking her leg with a hoof.

“Okay, now I kinda feel bad about what I did back in Cloudsdale…”

“Oh, there’s no need to thank me, really. It’s probably what everypony would’ve done.” Frosty shrugged off, but Rarity was having none of it.

“Oh, but it’s not, Darling. In fact, I have spent the whole night thinking about a way to properly reward you and I have come up with a few good pieces. Come on, I want to give them to you right away.” Rarity said, as she walked out of the Apple Homestead, pulling Frosty along.

“Uh, but Miss Rarity, that’s… really not necessary and—“

“Oh, pish-posh, Darling. Something as brave as jumping from such a height to save somepony else most definitely deserves a reward.” She interrupted him, as they left the farm. Frosty gave a last pleading look at the CMC, who could only shrug helplessly in return.

“… and this here I came up with a while ago for the summer collection. A simple white dress coat with a yellow bow-tie.”

This had been going on for HOURS by now. One after another, Rarity fitted him with the most absurd of garments, only for him to politely decline every single one of them. Though, even as he declined one after another, it didn’t seem like she would let up until she either ran out of clothes to show or he had finally taken one of them… and seeing her strangely gigantic basement with all those clothes made him realize that the latter was more likely to be the case.

“And this here is from the winter collection of the year prior. It’s a bit thick for summer, sure, but I can remove the excess stuffing when I fit it to your size.” She offered and truly, the clothes she had were magnificent, if only these ponies wouldn’t be too affixed with their concept of ‘Harmony’ to know ‘Contrast’. Up until that point, every single piece of clothing had been as bright as Frosty’s coat, if not even brighter and definitely more colourful.

“I don’t know, Rarity… don’t you have something that’s a little… darker?” He asked her, causing the mare to stop and think for a moment.

“Well yes, I do have something darker, but I don’t believe that it would go well with your mane and coat. I can get it if you want to, though.”

“That would be nice of you, Miss Rarity.”

Rarity vanished into the vastness of her basement for a few minutes, before a triumphant ‘Ha-haaa!’ could be heard, followed by closing hoofsteps.

“Here you go! It’s an old costume I made for a movie, consisting of a light brown fedora and a matching black tuxedo with bowtie and—“

“TAKEN!” Frosty quickly grabbed his chance at the first sensible piece of clothing he got offered.

“Oh, really? But isn’t it…?”

“Oh, don’t worry, Miss Rarity. I think it looks amazing. The Fedora is good to have at any time and the tuxedo will be a very nice piece of clothing for special events.” Frosty quickly cut her off, eager to finally end this fashion-induced torment.

“Well… if you are sure then it’s okay, I guess? Oh, what am I saying, of course it’s ‘Okay’. Come here, Frosty, let me just quickly get your measurements and then you can come back tomorrow to pick it up.”

With that, Rarity quickly whipped up a few measuring tapes and whirled them around Frosty in a seemingly chaotic manner, though she seemed to be getting the results she needed. Afterward, Frosty stepped out of the boutique to at least get something done today… only to realize that there wasn’t much ‘day’ left anymore.

The sun was nearing the end of its path in the sky, already touching the horizon with its outer edge. Frosty gave a short glance behind him toward the boutique, where he had been trapped for the last 10 hours at least and somehow, a small smile made its way onto his lips.

“Well… I guess my plans are postponed until tomorrow…” He chuckled, before making his way back towards the Apple Homestead to get some rest after a rather peculiar day.

Author's Note

Bad news folks: no new chapter next week :c
I've got some stuff to do regarding the Army 'n stuff and won't be able to write the new chapter until the week after.

Speaking of next chapter, a little warning on my part: as per the current plan, the next chapter will contain depictions of events that may cause flashbacks 'n such for those who have undergone... certain unpleasant events. Hard to describe without spoiling too much...
There will be a seperate warning in the next chapter, but I wanted to give you a heads-up beforehand, just in case.

Until next chapter, have a wonderful weekend, everyone! :twilightsmile:

The Dark Side of Magic

It’s been two weeks since the best Young Fliers Competition and the subsequent founding of Frosty’s herd and while they all had agreed on playing it low for now, it didn’t stop them from getting just a little bit more intimate during breaks. Nothing indecent, of course, they were merely standing in the schoolyard with the space between them reduced to a literal hair’s length, if any.

Of course, such closeness brought with it quite a few strange looks of the foals around them, but since none of them had any experience with relationships yet, none of them got the idea that they might be more than just friends now. That is, most of them did. Turns out that, as annoying as she already was, Diamond Tiara had an ace up her sleeve that made her even more annoying, if that was even possible.

“Oh, what do we have here? Look, Silver Spoon, they are trying to warm each other! Isn’t that adorable?” Diamond Tiara remarked sarcastically.

“Oh yes, and that even though it’s the middle of summer!” Silver Spoon went along.

“Heh, you’re right. Perhaps it’s something different? Maybe they are even closer than they seem to be?” Tiara implied.

“Tiara, do me a favour and shut yer overgrown muzzle, will ya?” Frosty told her flatly.

“Oooh, so it’s true! Heh, well, of course it is! It’s only natural for a bunch of blank flanks to hook up to another blank flank, after all!” Tiara taunted.

“… You do realize that I have my Cutie Mark, right?”

“Oh, come now… a Cutie Mark in Puppeteering?! I don’t need a Cutie Mark to do that.” Silver Spoon ridiculed him.

A small voice in the back of his head called for him to smash her against the tree behind them, but he forced it down.

‘Not now, too many witnesses…’

“Hey, Silver, you don’t think, he’s puppeteering them to be his marefriends right now?” Tiara pushed further.

“If he does… do you think, he also made them do… that?” Silver Spoon responded.

“Oh yeah, have you, ‘Frosty’?” Tiara asked him directly.

“What are they talking about, Frosty?” Sweetie Belle asked innocently, but Frosty ignored her for now.

“No, I haven’t. Though, there’s a question that keeps nagging at me: How do you know of that? I mean, I fail to see a coltfriend by your sides and I don’t see you with one outside of school either…” He pulled hoof up to his muzzle, gasped and feigned a look of shock. “Could it be… that your fathers love you more than you’d like to admit?”

“Our—WHAT?! What are you going on about?” Tiara demanded, growing slightly flustered. “I mean, I did walk in on my parents having… fun, but I… with my own daddy? Urgh, no, that’s gross!”

“Did you really just walk in on them or were you perhaps… peeping? Maybe in truth you are just frustrated that nopony wants to fill that void in your heart – and your rump.” Frosty pushed further with an – admittedly – pretty sadistic smile.

“I- what? No! I’m not—“

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m sure someday there will be somepony to choose you to be his. There is no need to be jealous of us because we found one another first.”

“ME?! Jealous of these blankards?! That’s just ridiculous!” Tiara fumed, before huffing and turning away. “Come, Silver, let’s go and find something else to have fun with.

They turned around and left with a bit more hurry than a ‘I’m better than you’ – retreat should have.

“So... now that they left, what were they going on about?” Scootaloo asked when they were out of earshot.

“Eh, I think I better leave that to miss Cheerilee or your sisters to explain.” Frosty told her.

“Aww, why?” Sweetie asked.

“Because I’m afraid that, if your sisters found out that I told you, they might get the elements and give me a good helping of Friendship-laser-beam. If it comes to the worst, they might even think that I gave you some… practical demonstration, in which case I would likely be in for a lengthy stay on the moon.”

“Ah don’ know what yer talkin’ about an’ ah don’ know if the elements really work that way, but ah think I get what yer tryin’ t’ say…” Applebloom conceded. “Ah mean… sis can be a bit overprotective sometimes…”

“Exactly, so how about we agree that not mentioning this little conversation to your sisters is a good way to help me stay alive?” Frosty offered, earning him a few giggles from the CMC.

Before long, the school bell rang, signalling the end of breaktime and the start of the next lesson.

After School, Frosty was yet again walking through Ponyville, though this time, he wasn’t headed for the library or the Everfree. This time, he had finally brought himself to do something that he wanted to try for a while now. Namely, test out what would happen if he were to touch the soul of a grown pony. He knew that the CMC fell in love with him when he touched them, but would the same thing happen to adults? There was only one way to find out!

Frosty looked left and right as he walked through the marketplace. Sure, saying that he wanted to test that was easy, but actually finding somepony he could test it on was a whole different story.

He didn’t want it to be anypony out in the open, as he was afraid that the effects of his touch might be fatal to the subject and/or its surroundings. Taking somepony in a shop was not really a good solution either, as, if he would be spotted, which was likely the case, he wouldn’t have many options in terms of a retreat. Not only that, but the others inside the shop would likely recognize his face, which would be rather bothersome.

He searched the whole marketplace without much luck. There were just too many ponies outside today! He was already about to give up and head home, when he looked into a side alley and saw his opportunity.

When he looked in there, he spotted the mint-green behind of Lyra Heartstrings, who was apparently currently talking to Bon Bon. The exact contents of their conversations were unknown to him and in all honesty, he cared very little about them. What he did care about was that the alley was completely unobserved and that these two were so engrossed in their conversation that they didn’t seem to notice him.

Thus, he concentrated on the souls in front of him and when he saw the white-glowing ponies inside of them, he slowly snuck up to Lyra and placed a hoof on her haunch.

The reaction was immediate. Frosty saw Lyra shudder once all over, before shooting around to him.

“Now, what was that meant to be, young colt?” she asked with irritation and annoyance alike.

“I- euh- that… that’s just… a greeting, where I’m from?” Frosty answered, slightly taken aback by the seeming lack of an effect.

“Oh... really?” Lyra asked back with a complete change in her demeanour. “Well, in that case you better not do that again. Other ponies might react a bit more strongly than I do.” She then turned around and looked over her shoulder at him with a coy smile. “Besides, you’ll have to wait a few years until you get to touch this fine booty.” She said, accentuating her words with a slap to her own haunch, causing it to jiggle slightly.

Frosty, however, was too fixated on something else to notice. The soul of Lyra had dimmed slightly. Not in the way that it had grown weaker or something, but that its colour has become a bit darker, from a pure white to a very, very bright gray, almost indistinguishable to the aforementioned white, yet clearly different.

“Lyra!” Bon Bon whined. “Don’t gross him out like that! I thought you were a filly-fooler anyways?” She said, with a bit of pain audible in her voice, when she said that last sentence.

Lyra turned her head back to Bon Bon and looked slightly irritated at her. “Huh… yeah, I am… why did I do that?” She mumbled to herself.

“Euh, yeah… well, I’m very sorry for the inconvenience. I… will take my leave now.” He said, before quickly turning the corner again and walking towards the Everfree.

‘Phew, that was uncomfortable.’ He thought to himself. ‘And my touch didn’t seem to have much of an effect… though something seemed to happen there. Maybe it has something to do with that colour change? That demands further research!’

Another dead Manticore lay before Frosty in his little testing grounds in the Everfree Forest. He had been testing the effects and nature of the previously observed colour change and had actually come up with results.

Firstly: the process burns through a LOT of energy. So much in fact that he had to literally go hunting for souls to absorb in order to perform it, which brought with it the side effect of this overwhelming feeling of power yet again.

Secondly, the colour change was caused by his own necromantic energy infecting and ‘corrupting’ the touched soul, which caused it to grow more attached to Frosty, while simultaneously losing its own free will. The colouration he perceived displayed the level of corruption, ranging from white – none at all – over true grey – 50% free will, 50% corruption – to deep black, which (logically) meant 100% corruption and absolute servitude to Frosty.

His touch was barely enough to cause any corruption at all, which meant that their free will was still almost completely intact. This apparently caused the victim’s mind to try and find a logical reason for the strange affection they were feeling towards him. With the Crusaders it was love, Lyra was apparently just finding him childishly adorable or something and the Manticore… suddenly had even more of an appetite than before.

And that’s where we are now. The Manticore tried to nom Frosty, of course, which gave him no other choice but to break his test subject prematurely. Truly a shame, given that he still didn’t know the actual extent of servitude he could demand from them, but he could always just find another one for his tests, couldn’t he?

He was suddenly taken out of his thoughts, when he heard the bush behind him rustle slightly. He let out a sigh and smiled slightly. After all, it wasn’t the first time that they snuck up on and watched him. He turned around and slowly made his way to the offending bush.

“Oh gee, I think this bush here might be possessed. I better exorcize it before—“ He stopped when he pulled the bush aside and looked, not into the eyes of his three fillies, but into the eyes of Diamond Tiara.

In a moment, his playful demeanor changed to shock and to fear over being found out and what might happen if she actually told somepony what she saw. This fear quickly turned into anger. Anger at the pony who had found him and who would definitely become a threat if he didn’t do something about it.

“What are you doing here?!” Frosty hissed, his fury clearly audible and sending a cold shiver down Tiara’s back.

“P-Please, don’t hurt me! I-I won’t tell anypony, I swear!” She pleaded, falling to her rump. However, her pleading did not hold the desired effect.

The urge in the back of his head had returned and this time, it merged with the underlying feeling of power, resulting in a cacophony of malicious thoughts. In the face of this onslaught of sin, Tiara’s pleading was only throwing more fuel into the fire, bringing forth primal notions normally subdued by our consciousness. Frosty felt needs, the need to dominate, the need to conquer… he felt lust.

A sadistical grin split his face as he started to advance on the helpless filly. She in turn tried to scoot away, but quickly realized that she was not nearly fast enough to get away from him, so she got to her hooves and tried to run away, never taking her eyes off of her pursuer… and that was her mistake.

Her forelegs struck a root, causing her to slam into the ground with her back legs still rigid and her rump raised. Her tail was flung away by its own inertia, holding her most precious gem directly into Frosty’s face.

This was the last straw that caused Frosty’s conscience to be finally overpowered by the dark forces within and in her daze, Tiara could only whimper, as she saw the weapon of his masculinity slip free from its sheath and present itself to her.

She tried to get a hold of herself and to continue to flee, but it was no use. Frosty was already on top of her and pressed her head back down… and his tip against her entrance.

“You know what’s about to happen, don’t you?” Frosty asked her with malicious glee, emphasizing his implications with just barely enough pressure to not slip in just yet.

Tiara only whimpered in response, as she knew that any answer she would give would only make her fate more inevitable and as the hopelessness of her situation finally set in, she started to cry.

WARNING: Porn section!
The following segment holds no importance towards the rest of the story, other than that it happened. If you’re uncomfortable with the setting or otherwise don’t want to read this, feel free to skip to the next sign.

Frosty slowly increased the pressure, slowly sinking into Tiara’s folds. Her cries intensified when pain added to her despair, as her virgin pussy got penetrated for the first time.

“Heh, I guess you really were a virgin!” Frosty remarked, slightly increasing his speed.

“Y-Yeah.” Tiara pressed out between her crying. “I wanted to save myself for my c-coltfriend!”

“Oh, in that case, I’ll pull out again.” Frosty said, doing just that.

“R-Really?” Tiara asked hopefully.

“SIKE!”

Frosty suddenly hilted himself in one forceful thrust, making Tiara cry out loud underneath him. Without waiting for her to recover, he then started thrusting in and out of her in a steady and forceful rhythm which made her rock back and forth, sliding across the dirt floor. Her crying took on the rhythm of his pumping, making it almost sound like she was moaning in pleasure instead of crying in despair.

Every time his hips met hers, a loud *plap* echoed across the small clearing, drowning it in a cacophony of cries from Tiara, feral grunts from Frosty and the naughty sounds that were produced between them.

*plap plap plap*

He slammed into her with reckless abandon, caring little about what she was thinking at that moment. To him, she had become little more than a toy, only still alive to quench the urges that had gone unfulfilled for far too long now.

“P-please – Ah! – please stop!” Tiara desperately pleaded, however she quickly realized that she was only achieving the opposite as the intruder suddenly grew more rigid and the tip flared. With horror, she felt how the shaft inside her started to pulse.

“You can feel that, huh?” Frosty asked directly into her ear. “And I guess you also know what that means…”

“N-No! Please! Pull out, please!!” She begged, trying to get away from him again, but all she managed was falling to the side, which Frosty quickly used to fully turn her to her back.

“What, are you afraid of getting pregnant?” Frosty asked, sadistically grinning down to her.

“N-No! I- Ah! I’m not—“ She was interrupted when Frosty’s thrusts suddenly became frantic and even more forceful.

“Good! That means I don’t have to hold back!”

“No! Please don’t! Please pull out! NOOOO!” She pleaded, but it was too late. She already felt the first hot spurts coat her insides, just before Frosty hilted one last time and filled her underage womb with his seed.

Frosty felt like he was in heaven. All that pressure that had built up, all the frustration he had harboured since he came here, all suddenly released in a single moment. In that moment, he could think of nothing, but to fill her with everything that he had. To pump everything he could directly into her and make sure that she would never forget this day.

Spurt after spurt of hot semen splashed into her womb. The first few shots caused her to cry every time she felt their heat splosh inside her, however by the time the fifth shot reached her, her cries had died down to sniffles.

The tenth shot came… and the fifteenth… and the twentieth. She felt the pressure inside her rise and the sperm inside pushing past the intruder and trickling down her inner thighs. By now, she had stopped making any noises whatsoever, merely waiting for Frosty to fire his final few shots.

Finally, after an impossible amount of time and shots, his dick finally became flaccid again and he pulled out. As soon as he did, a torrent of white goo followed him, forming a white puddle underneath him.

Porn Section END

Frosty, now free from the effects of his own powers, looked over the abused form of Tiara in horror. Sure, she was annoying as all hell and definitely deserved something to happen to her… but never would he have even imagined something like this, far less done it himself!

His mind was in a frenzy, still too dazed from the act to form an actual, rational thought. So, instead of trying to solve the problem he found himself in, his mind turned to the most primitive notions of all: flight. If he escaped the scene before Tiara could recover, maybe she would forget who did this and he might get away unscathed… at least those were his thoughts.

Thus, he snuck past the semi-conscious form of Tiara as fast as he could, however he found that his plan had failed, when he felt a hoof against his hind leg.

“N-No, please… don’t l-leave me… m-master.”

Frosty immediately shot around to Diamond, when she said that last word. He looked into her half-lidded eyes and saw that her pupils were both glowing purple – the same colour as his magic and the pupils of his undead.

How could that be? Did his sperm have some weird effect that he didn’t know about? Was the simple act of sex enough to make a pony his slave? All those questions assaulted his mind while, unbeknownst to him, Diamond Tiara scooted closer.

‘Could it be some kind of bleed-over that caused this?’ Frosty pondered. ‘Maybe I subconsciously wanted her to be my slave or something? Oh god, maybe I subconsciously killed and resurrected her as a zombie?! Wait, no, she wouldn’t be able to speeEEEEEAAAK!” Frosty squealed in surprise, as he suddenly felt something or somepony plant wet licks across his retreating member. He looked down and found that Diamond Tiara was currently licking up the leftovers and he barely managed to stop her before she would’ve gone for a full-on fellatio.

“No. Stop.” He said and Diamond obeyed.

“Yes, my master.” She said, scooting backwards and away from Frosty and staring at him with her purple-glowing eyes.

Frosty took the chance and checked her soul. Sure enough, it was still there, meaning that he had not turned her undead. However, it also showed what had actually happened: Her soul was almost 100% corrupted.

“Soo… you’re my servant now, huh?” Frosty more stated than asked.

“Yes, master. I am your loyal servant from now on.” Tiara confirmed.

“Phew, I take it I don’t have to worry about becoming a father from this?”

Diamond leaned back onto her haunches and stroked her belly softly. “Sadly, I have to confirm that this body is still too under-developed to conceive…”

“I see… but how did this happen anyways? The servant-thing, I mean.” Frosty asked.

“During master’s climax, it seems that, putting it in the terms this filly would have used, you were so focused on filling me up that you accidentally also pumped something else into me.” The servant said, blushing slightly.

“Wait wait wait, the terms this filly would have used? Are you implying that Tiara is still in there somewhere?”

“Indeed, my master. Destroying a natural soul is near-impossible. Instead, when you ‘corrupt’ a pony, you put a stronger, synthetic soul over its original one, like a blanket. This synthetic soul then assumes control over the body it was placed in instead of the original one, provided that it has reached at least 51% of its strength.” The servant explained.

“So that means you have no access to her personality whatsoever? Like memories, her kinks and quirks, friendships, all that stuff?”

“I’m sorry, my master, but no. The two souls only interact very minimally with one another, merely placing thoughts into the one that is currently in control, the strength of which again depending on the level of corruption.”

“I see…” Frosty acknowledged. “But since you seem to know so much about yourself, tell me: what is the difference between you and a normal zombie, besides the obvious?”

“If master allows me to assume that ‘the obvious’ pertains to the way we are created, then I suppose it would mainly be that I am still bound to the limits of mortality. Eating, drinking, sleeping, breathing, as well as… other urges still limit my effectiveness as a servant.” She said, shooting a hungry look towards Frosty’s crotch. “However, we servants, in turn, are also not just limited to regular physical and necromantic abilities, but can utilize everything our body has to offer. Also, the undead require additional energy in order to restore themselves, as master has already experienced himself, I believe. This may make them immortal and invincible, in a way, but ultimately might cost you more than it would gain you. Us servants, meanwhile, do not need additional sustenance, as our bodies are still alive.”

“Interesting, but… is there also a way to revert this? Don’t get me wrong, I am thankful for the advice but I can’t risk somepony to find out what I am. I would rather get an estranged version of ‘the talk’ for what I did here than be exorcised for being a necromancer.”

“As is only understandable, my master and yes, it actually is revertible. Another advantage towards my undead counterparts.” The servant confirmed.

“Which you failed to mention because?” Frosty asked, suspicious.

The servant, in turn, looked away and stroked her foreleg with a hoof. “Because… even for a servant, ‘dying’ is not a very comfortable experience.”

“I see…”

“But…” The servant interjected quickly, bowing before Frosty. “if this form is no longer of use to you, my master, I would of course feel honoured to return the energy used in my creation and be of further use to you!”

“Then, I am very sorry, but I will have to revert this.” Frosty stated solemnly.

“I understand, my master, but before you do that, if you would allow me to give you some advice?”

“Sure, go on.”

“I would advise you to wash off the pheromones that still linger on you, if you want to go undetected.” The servant advised him.

“Oh… In that case, I should probably go for a swim in that pond then…” Frosty said, going past the servant towards the small pond in the clearing, but stopped when he noticed the servant wasn’t following.

“Come on, you too!” He commanded.

“R-Really?” The servant asked with anticipation and bowed low, when Frosty nodded. “I feel honoured, my master.”

They washed each other off properly, making sure that nothing may immediately give away what happened in the clearing and when they were done, Frosty made ready to pull the servant back, however stopped, when an idea sprang to mind.

“Say, when I just lower the corruption so that Tiara takes over again, do you ’die’ in that case?”

“Euh, no, it would just be like a lucid dream of sorts…” The servant answered.

“And if I lowered the corruption only barely enough for her to regain control, say to 45% or so, could you make it so that she never mentions what happened here to anypony, maybe make her feel like she secretly enjoyed what I did to her and be embarrassed about it or something like that?”

“I… I could certainly do that!” The servant answered enthusiastically.

“Splendid. In that case, this seems to be the more efficient option.” Frosty stated.

“I… I feel honoured that you allow my continued existence, my master!” The servant said, bowing low before Frosty.

Frosty began the procedure, pulling the necromantic energy out of Tiara’s body, so that the corruption went down to somewhere around 45%. The moment he stopped doing so, Tiara fell to the side, unconscious. This actually played right into his hooves, as that way, he could cover this whole incident up as having found her in the Everfree and bringing her back home and if the servant did his part right, nopony would ever learn the truth.

Frosty did just that, dropping the still-unconscious Diamond Tiara off at her home and receiving many thanks from her parents. A whole bit bag full, to be exact.

Thus, with his newfound wealth, he made for the crusader’s clubhouse, where the fillies were already waiting for him.

“Finally, Frosty! Where have you been?” Scotaloo asked him as soon as he entered.

“Oh, nowhere in particular, really. I’ve just resolved a little problem with Diamond Tiara.” He stated, which wasn’t actually a lie…

Author's Note

Yep, that just happened.

On another note: I have a Discord server now! (Yeah yeah, going with the mainstream 'n stuff, I know.) For those who are interested: https://discord.gg/wd3fV9h628

Those Times when Conscience is a Bitch

Frosty awoke slightly groggily the next morning. As if on autopilot, he swung himself out of bed and strolled over to the little mirror in his room, while still half-asleep. He gave himself a once-over, before cantering over to the door and opening it. However, just as he was about to leave, he noticed that something or rather somepony was blocking his path.

“Good mornin’, Frosty!” Applebloom cheerfully greeted.

“Eugh, morning, Applebloom… is there a reason, why you’re standing in front of my door this early in the morning?” Frosty asked her groggily.

“Ah, yeah, you see, we still got a bit a time ‘till we gotta go ta school, so… ah thought we could have a bit a fun?” She said, adopting a slightly sultry tone.

“Euh… what kind of fun, exactly?” Frosty asked her, growing wary.

“Oh, you know…” She started, casually closing the distance between them. “…the same kinda fun, you and Tiara had yesterday?” She said with the same sultry tone, causing Frosty to quickly sober up.

“Euh, y-you saw that?” Frosty said anxiously, backing up into his room. Applebloom followed him slowly, allowing the distance to increase.

“Yeah, ah saw that… an it made me all tingly. Especially back there~.” She casually flicked her tail while she advanced on Frosty. He, in turn, tried to back up further, but found himself suddenly hitting the wall behind him.

“A-Applebloom, d-do you even know what you’re talking about?! I mean… aren’t you—“

“You know, at first I only wanted to see where Tiara was going, but then… She found you.” Applebloom interrupted. “At first I only wanted to ask you what you were doing, but everything went so fast~. One moment you were just standing there, the next I got to see a part of you that made my hind legs tremble~.”

She continued her advance, her eyes half-lidded and her tail swishing back and forth. “I heard her scream, beg, cry…“ She let out a sudden, lustful moan, before she continued. “I heard your grunts, the slapping sound of your strong muscles working yourself into her… and it made my backside tingle soooo badly

~. Just thinking about it makes it come back~”

By now, she was only a few hooves away from Frosty, close enough that he could almost feel her panting in his face. “Frosty~. I feel itchy back there… I can feel it running down my thighs and legs~. Please, help me clean that up~ and when you’re done... I want you to scratch… deep inside~.”

She was almost so close that their foreheads would touch when salvation came.

“Applebloom? Whatch’all doin in here?” Applejack asked from the door.

“Heya sis~.” Applebloom casually greeted over her shoulder. “I’m going to buck Frosty. Wanna join?”

“HELP APPLEJACK! She’s gone ins—“

“Sure, sounds like fun~~” Applejack replied, adopting the same bedroom eyes that her sister had and joining in her advance.

“W-What?! N-No! I don’t want this!!” Frosty desperately whined.

“Tiara didn’t either.” Big Mac said, when he suddenly was in the room as well.

“Huh? Oh, is this all about Yesterday? OKAY, I’M SORRY! Just… please… don’t be mad at me!” Frosty begged.

“Oh, we aren’t mad~.” Applebloom moaned, suddenly forcing him into a short, forceful kiss. “Actually… I liked what I saw~. I liked it so much that I think I’m gonna try the same~…”

She vanished downward out of Frosty’s vision, before he felt a wet lick being traced from the top of his sheath downwards to his base.

“Come on, Frosty~~.” Applejack slurred as she pressed her forehead against his. “It’s time to buck some Apples~~.”

“Eeeyup~”

Frosty darted upright in his bed, panting and sweating. He looked around. He was alone in his room, the morning sun barely strong enough to illuminate it. When he affirmed that his room was empty, he let his head slump forward and caught it with his hooves. He swiped once across his face to remove the sweat and then just sat there, calming the machinegun that his heart had become.

“Way to go, conscience.” He muttered after a moment. “As if it weren’t enough to just let me feel bad, no, you had to go the extra step and kick me in the face.”

As he said that, he noticed that, even though his conscience had given him an obvious sign that it was still there, he still felt little to no remorse over what he did. Maybe being a Necromancer has dulled his empathy? Or maybe his second death did? Whatever the case may be, it would certainly be helpful later on, even if in a more or less morbid way.

He slipped out of bed and went over to the mirror in his room. His mane hung down from the sweat and his fur looked as if he had taken a swim.

“Yep, time for a shower.” He concluded, taking the fedora Rarity had made and leaving his room to head for the bathroom.

After his shower, he looked at himself in the bathroom mirror again. His fur was still matted, but at least he was clean now.

He was just about to brush his teeth, when Applebloom suddenly opened the door.

“Hey sis, can ya help me please, ah—“ She said, only then noticing that it wasn’t her sister who was using the sink.

“Good morning Applebloom. What’s wrong?” Frosty greeted back.

For a moment, Applebloom just stood there and stared, before suddenly growing very red in her face. “I, euh, I… gottago!” She stammered, before quickly rushing back into her room.

“… what was that?” He wondered aloud, suddenly picking up a weird, sweet smell.

He thought nothing of it for the moment, being too distracted by Applebloom’s weird behaviour. He got out of the bathroom and looked towards Applebloom’s room. Only now that he stood in the middle of the hallway did he notice the weird smell.

‘Is Applebloom using some sort of perfume?’ Frosty thought to himself, placing his fedora atop his head and heading down for breakfast.

“Oh, well if that ain’t our lil’ sleepyhead right there! Ah’ve never seen ya up this early, Frozen Blood. Ah thought ya weren’t the mornin’ type.” Granny Smith said, as he descended the stairs.

“Eh, just woke up a little earlier than usual, that’s all.” Frosty replied.

“Maybe ya switched sleep schedules with Applebloom? Normally she’d be tha one t’ be down here ba now.” Applejack offered.

“I actually saw her just a moment ago. She seemed to look for you.” Frosty told her.

“Oh really? Any reason?”

“Nothing she had told me, no… but I think I noticed a weirdly sweet smell.”

Applejack’s eyes momentarily went wide, before she sprang up and rushed past Frosty. “Hold on Applebloom, sis is comin’!”

Frosty, in turn, stared after her with a confused gaze, before turning back to the two ponies at the table. “What was that all about?” He asked, to which granny smith quickly occupied herself with the stove, leaving Big Mac to face the question.

“Come ‘ere Frosty, ah guess, ah gotta tell ya somethin’” He said, motioning for Frosty to take a seat beside him.

Frosty did so and waited for the answer, while Big Mac seemed to fumble with his words. “Err, ya see, once a year, mares get… uh… ready to, umm… have foals, you know?”

Suddenly, it clicked. “Ooooh, she’s getting into heat!” Frosty blurted out, causing Big Mac to give an embarrassed glance to the side.

“Eh… y-yeah, that. Y’know what a heat is?” he asked almost hesitantly.

“Yeah, no need to tell me.” He grinned. “Though… isn’t Applebloom a bit young?” Frosty asked casually.

“E-eh… ah… don’ think so… ah mean, from what ah’ve heard, Scootaloo had ‘er first last year too.”

“Ah. I take it this is her first, then? Would certainly explain Applejack’s reaction.” Frosty noted.

“Y-yeah… ya seem mighty casual ‘bout this stuff, ya know?” Big Mac pointed out.

‘I just had a fuckin’ nightmare about almost being raped. This is nothing to that!’

“Yeah, euh… that’s because… back on the streets, there were some things you had to… get used to, to survive. It wasn’t pretty, but at least it kept you alive for a little longer, you know?” Frosty said, hoping that Applejack couldn’t hear him.

“Oh… sorry ‘bout that. Ya know, ya never really told us ‘bout yer past.” Big Mac said, implying that he would like to hear something.

“And I’d like to keep it that way. Sorry, but there are some things that I’d rather forget.” Frosty declined.

“Sorry.” Mac apologized.

“Oh, don’t be. You were just curious, that’s all. Besides, with everything you’ve given me up until now, I feel like it’s more than enough to offset my past. I’ve got good friends here, I can go to school, I have a family…”

“Oh, so you consider us family already, huh?” Granny Smith chimed back in.

“Don’t think that I haven’t found out about the adoption yet. I’m actually just waiting for Applejack to give me the ‘news’” Frosty said with a smirk.

“Oh… Well, she wanted to surprise you on your birthday, but ah guess that ain’t gonna work now anymore.” Granny Smith noted.

“Not if you just don’t tell her and I act surprised when she tells me.”

Big Mac chuckled at that. “Well, ya can try, but ah tell ya: there ain’t nopony foolin’ mah sister.”

‘Sorry pal, already did that.’

“Heh, we’ll see… Now that I think about it, does she even know my birthday? I mean, I don’t think I ever told her.”

“Ya didn’t. Applejack wanted t’ ask ya ‘bout it, but thinks doin’ that too directly might spoil the surprise.” Big Mac explained.

“Really? Huh. Well, I actually kinda know what she’s going through there. When you’re trying to hide something, suddenly everything you do seems suspicious. Now that I think about it that must be especially true to Applejack…” Frosty chuckled and Big Mac and Granny smith joined in.

He leaned back in his chair, just enjoying this little moment. How long has it been since he just sat at the table together with his family and they were just talking about stuff? Must’ve been half a lifetime by now, at least it felt like it. The thoughts of his old home, they were good ones. He didn’t let them be spoiled by his experiences at the University. He didn’t even feel bad that these times were gone, he was just content that they happened… and the Apple Family filled whatever holes were remaining.

Frosty smiled lightly at the thought. He looked over to Big Mac, who by now had taken to his breakfast, and noticed something.

“You know what, Big Mac?” Big Mac swallowed and attentively looked over to him. “I think this little conversation just now held more input from you than the past few months I’ve been here.”

Big Mac smiled and laughed lightly at that.

“Eeeyup.”

The higher They rise, the farther They fall

Frosty and the CMC sat in their most favourite spot on the schoolyard. The three fillies had huddled close to him again, just as they did every day since the day they formed their herd. Of course, this behaviour earned them some very jealous looks, especially from the other colts in the yard.

Frosty ignored these looks for the most part, as they mattered little to him. If anything, he actually found them to be quite amusing, seeing as most colts in the yard wouldn’t even know what a herd is at this point. There was, however, one look he received that made his lips visibly and involuntarily curl up.

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon passed by, talking to each other as they went. However, when they passed Frosty’s group, Tiara glanced over to him and the moment their eyes met, she adopted a very fear-filled look, but also sported a fierce blush and looked away. She tucked her tail tight between her legs and quickened her pace a little, giving Silver Spoon slight difficulty to keep up without trotting.

“Did you notice that we haven’t heard anything from Diamond Tiara for a while now?” Sweetie Belle asked, slightly muffled by Frosty’s chest fur which she was pressing her face into.

“Yeah. Whatever ya told her, Ah think it worked, Frosty.” Applebloom agreed.

“Yep. It seems all it takes sometimes is a good talk.” Frosty said.

‘Or a case of rape with subsequential implantation of a psychic parasite.’

“Heh, yeah. Should’ve tried that sooner. Would’ve spared us a lot of trouble.” Scootaloo piped up, sighing contently into Frosty’s fur.

With three fillies seeking the closeness of his body, radiating their warmth and love directly into him, Frosty, for the first time in decades, felt content. The last few months had been wonderful, in more ways than one, but somehow, it all was overshadowed by the simple—

Frosty suddenly tensed up, as he felt a strange sting coming from somewhere.

‘I’m being watched.’ He somehow knew as if on instinct and immediately scanned the area, though nopony seemed to be particularly interested in him, at least none that he didn’t know about already.

He switched to soul-vision and scanned the area anew and this time, he actually found somepony. Far off, in a small bushline, he saw a lone soul standing and looking directly at him.

‘Huh, standing in a bush and watching foals play in the school yard? Pff, what a perv.’ Frosty thought to himself, but couldn’t help but adopt a devious smirk as he thought of something.

He raised his hoof slightly and gently traced it down Sweetie Belle’s back, while smirking at the unknown onlooker. The result was a barely supressed moan, as well as a blush on Sweetie’s face, which she quickly buried even deeper into Frosty’s chest.

“Pfff, what was that?” Scootaloo chuckled.

“I don’t know. Frosty just ran a hoof down my back and it felt… weird.” Sweetie answered.

“Oh really? Hey, let me try!”

Chuckling lightly to himself, Frosty did the same to Scootaloo, which caused her to react in much the same way.

“Wow. Yeah, that is weird.” Scootaloo chuckled with her muzzle still pressed into Frosty’s side.

With another devious smirk, Frosty glanced back to the bushline, only to see that the pony was no longer there. That was when he suddenly felt another sting… from behind him… and it was closer. A LOT closer.

He whipped around, immediately activating his soul vision, however he saw nothing this time and the sting also vanished as soon as he turned around.

“Frosty? Is everythin’ okay?” Applebloom asked in concern.

“Eh… yes, I just… I just had to shake off a leaf, is all.” Frosty said dismissively, even though his breathing was quickened and his heart rate had tripled.

After school, Frosty joined the CMC in their pursuit to find their Cutie Marks. It was less because he actually wanted to help them – after all, he knew how they would get them eventually – and more because he felt like he should stay close to them for the day.

The encounter – or lack thereof – in the school yard was still bothering him. Not only that, but he has actually felt that same sting throughout the school day, though he could not confirm whether the stalker had really returned or if he was just becoming paranoid. What he did know, however, was that whoever it was that he had found was not an ordinary pony.

They entered the marketplace, where Scootaloo and Applebloom were immediately debating their plans for the day, while Sweetie Belle just meekly tagged along. Frosty, however, didn’t even listen to their conversation. Instead, he scanned his surroundings, his skin shedding more water than the Neighgara Falls and his ears were on a constant swivel, trying to make out any noise that might not fit into the ambience.

It was back.

The stinging feeling he had all day had followed them into the marketplace… and not only that one. It were more this time. Four stings from four different directions. At first he thought that maybe the other ponies in the marketplace were causing that sting as well, but he saw quite a few of them looking at the group and none caused that same sting.

He checked his surroundings with his soul-vision again and again, he saw vaguely pony-shaped figures standing only barely far enough away for them to remain concealed by the crowd, without losing track of Frosty.

He looked around, quickly trying to find some sort of way to get them off their track and the first thing he spotted was a certain gingerbreadhouse at the edge of the plaza.

Frosty subtly steered their group towards the bakery, before yanking the three fillies inside with him when they were close enough. He sped through the building all the way to the back and into the kitchen, where Pinkie Pie was currently making Cupcakes.

“Oh, hey Frosty!” the cheerful mare greeted, unperturbed by their sudden entrance. “What’cha doin’ here?”

“Hey Pinkie, we, uh, we are playing hide and seek, so could you please pretend we aren’t here? And please don’t tell anypony where we are. Seriously, I mean ANY-pony.” Frosty told her.

“Okie Dokie Lokie!” Pinkie chirped, going back to watching the cupcakes grow in their forms, completely ignoring Frosty and the CMC.

“Frosty? Wh-what’s going on?” Sweetie asked anxiously.

Frosty didn’t answer at first, instead looking around and out of the window, making sure that they weren’t followed, before he answered. “We’re being watched. I don’t know why and I don’t know by whom, but we’re definitely being—“ He suddenly stopped, when a cold shudder ran down his spine. They were still being watched… and whoever it was, they were close by.

He activated soul-vision and went out into the café, where he immediately spotted the one that was watching him.

They made eye contact and Frosty decided that it was time to go into the offensive, closing in on the stalker. He was a deep brown earth pony with a white collar and a red tie around his neck. He saw Frosty advancing towards him with a look on him that told pretty much anyone in the vicinity that whoever he was moving towards better had some damn good answers.

The stallion started sweating profusely, trying to look away and somehow become seamless again, but his cover had been blown. Thus, he decided to use the last trump card in his repertoire and make a hasty escape. Frosty was immediately hot on his heels, with the CMC trying to keep up, but slowly being left behind.

The stallion fled into the marketplace, where he hoped to lose Frosty in the crowd. What he hadn’t thought of was the size difference between the two. Obstacles that the stallion had to forcefully push away, Frosty simply evaded or avoided altogether. Ponies who were passing by, who had to be pushed aside by the stallion, Frosty could simply slip underneath.

When they cleared the marketplace, the distance between them had shrunk significantly, however it wasn’t enough yet for Frosty to catch him… if catching him had been his goal in the first place.

They entered the Everfree Forest and immediately as they did, Frosty slowed down and increased the distance between them, activating soul-vision to keep track of the escapee. When the distance between them had increased so much that neither could see the other through normal means anymore, Frosty stopped and smirked to himself.

‘Now off to find their hideout.’ He thought

“Hey! Frosty! WAIT!” Scootaloo called from behind him, as the CMC finally caught up.

He whipped around, looking at them with no small amount of surprise. “What are you doing here?” He asked them. “I thought you stayed at Sugarcube Corner!”

“We were! But you were talking about such strange things and then you just ran out, chasing this strange pony and we… we jus— we didn’t know what else to do!” Sweetie whined, on the verge of crying.

“Okay, but you should really go back. It’s dangerous out—“

Danngerous, yes. Frosty looked around and noticed that they were in the middle of the Everfree. The only thing holding off the monstrosities that lurked within these woods was likely the stench of death that had to be wafting off of him by now. Sending three little fillies on their own through there would be a death sentence.

“Okay, change of plans. You can come along, but you have to stay close to me.”

“Heh, I’ve got no problem with that.” Scootaloo said, immediately rushing to his side and leaning against him.

“Me neither.” Sweetie Belle piped up as well, taking the spot on his other side.

“Me neitherest!” Applebloom chirped, after she jumped on his back and let him piggyback her.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo pouted up at their herdmate, mainly for not having thought of that before her. Frosty, meanwhile, was wondering if Applebloom was just remarkably light or if he was abnormally strong for his age, as he didn’t even notice the additional weight on his back.

‘Well… something for another time, I guess.’ He thought to himself, as he ushered his group along to catch up with their stalker.

It had taken them a while, but eventually they caught up with the stallion. However, just before they did, they left the trail and hid themselves in the underbrush. They followed him along for a while, until they came upon a cave, which the stallion was standing in front of. He looked around a few times and when he was sure that he was alone, he suddenly burst into green flames.

‘A CHANGELING?!’ Frosty barely managed not to blurt out, as the brown stallion was suddenly replaced by a black insectoid.

The Changeling looked around a few more times, before turning and vanishing into the cave.

Frosty waited a few seconds before he followed him in, lest he be detected before he could gain any intel. However, that also meant the he had to guess which way the changeling went whenever they came to a junction. Luckily for them, there was only one. It was a three-way junction with the way they came from and another running almost in parallel, while a third went directly ahead from them. It wasn’t hard to figure out, which way the Changeling went.

They followed the path further into the cave, until they suddenly heard voices echoing through the halls. They snuck further, careful not to make any unnecessary noise, all the way into a large cavern, where they found the source of the voices.

A small infiltrator cell had set itself up in the caves. They weren’t many, only around twenty or thirty changelings, but given the unaware state of the ponies, that was more than enough to capture Ponyville, if they wanted to.

‘So why don’t they?’ Frosty asked himself, just as the changeling they were tailing appeared to be reporting to his superior.

“Infiltrator-General, drone Pharynx reporting back!”

“At ease, drone. What is your report?” The General acknowledged.

“Sir, I’m afraid, my disguise has been compromised.”

The General seemed surprised by his report. “Your disguise has been compromised? How did that happen, Pharynx? You’re one of my best agents!”

“I don’t know, sir. I was shadowing the sisters of our targets, when one of their acquaintances somehow noticed me. I tried to blend back into the crowd, but in the end, I had to flee.”

“So be it… well, it seems we’ll have to advance our plans a little then. Do you have any intel on our targets?” The General inquired.

“Yes, sir. Based on my intel, Loyalty and Honesty seem the most capable in combat, so they should be aducted first.”

“THEY WANT TO—HMMPH” Scootaloo and Applebloom blurted out before Frosty could stop them, but it was too late. Every Changeling in the cavern was now looking directly at them.

“Fuck, we better get a move on!” Frosty cursed, dragging the fillies along as he fled down the same way they came from. However, just as luck would have it, another group of changelings came down the entryway just as he reached the junction. Thus, the only choice left for him was to take the other route, of which he had no idea where it led.

They ran through the dark tunnels, the only light being the magic glow of Frosty’s horn as he was levitating the fillies with him. The light barely shone far enough to give Frosty enough time to brake, as suddenly a large ravine came into view and the only way to cross it was a small suspension bridge.

‘Oh bollocks.’ Frosty thought, setting the fillies down, so he could test the integrity of the bridge. The timbers creaked under the weight Frosty put on them, but they held and the swinging didn’t seem too bad.

Deciding that further testing would cost too much time, Frosty sent the CMC ahead, so he could fend off the Changelings if necessary. And necessary, it would seem, as their pursuers came into view, just as they reached the middle of the bridge.

“There! Stop them by all means!” The General shouted.

‘By all means? Oh no, you don’t mean…’ Frosty though, hurrying the fillies along as two changelings started charging their horns and blasted the ropes that held the bridge.

The wood beneath them succumbed to the influence of gravity, as did the foals, as they now found themselves accelerating to the depths, where a small underground river snaked its path through the rocks.

Frosty used his magic to slow the fillies down as much as he could without killing them and realigned their paths, so they would fall into the water.

He finished doing so only moments, before he felt something pierce his back and make its way through his chest. And just as the lights went out, he heard three consecutive splashes behind him.

Applebloom heaved in a big lungful of air as she surfaced again. Had she not screamed throughout the entire fall, she might’ve had a bit more air to spare, but she couldn’t know that back then, couldn’t she? Also, she had other concerns right now. For example: where were—

“Sweetie Belle? Applebloom?” Scootaloo called from almost directly beside her. Applebloom gasped and the two turned to each other, looking at each other in shock, before going down in a giggling fit.

“Yeah, har har, you two.” Sweetie Belle said, as she dragged herself out of the water. They looked at her for a moment, then at themselves. Their furs clung to their skin like barnacles to cloth. Applebloom’s bow had become undone and was now lazily hanging from her mane and Sweetie Belle’s locks didn’t fare any better.

Long story short: they looked awful... so much so that it resulted in another giggling fit that all three took part in. That is, until Scootaloo remembered that they were missing somepony.

“Wait, where is Frosty?!”

Immediately, the giggling ended and all three turned to the water, hoping to see him crawl out, just like they did.

They waited and waited and waited and then waited some more, but no Frosty as far the eye could see. That is, until they heard wet coughing from a few metres upriver. They pushed through the darkness that surrounded them, only a few luminescent mushrooms shedding some light.

They came upon the broken remains of the suspension bridge they had fallen from and searched the immediate area. However, none of them could find their friend. That was when another wet cough drew their attention to one of the surrounding stalagmites, atop which they found what they had hoped never to see.

Frosty had been impaled by the sharp rock, the bloodied tip sticking out through his chest. His eyes were closed with him only barely drifting on the rim of consciousness, so he didn’t notice the three fillies until Sweetie Belle called out to him.

“Frosty!” She cried, utterly shocked by what she saw. Frosty opened his eyes slightly and, as he saw them, wheezed out a single order.

“Run!”

“But Frosty, what about—“ Sweetie Belle said back, just as Frosty threw his head back in pain.

A weird, black fog oozed out of both sides of his wound, coating the floor around him and slowly creeping towards the three fillies. His eyes flew open again, devoid of any white and with a red dot floating in place of his pupils, as he screamed at the CMC. “RUN YOU FOOLS!”

They didn’t have to be told twice. The fillies turned around and ran as fast as they could, barely faster than the fog spread out. Dead fish drifted to the surface of the river, as the fog covered it, only to immediately turn into ash. Insects, mushrooms, bacteria, everything living that touched the fog was immediately devoured by it.

As the fog spread, Frosty’s wound slowly closed, pushing him upwards on the stalagmite. When he reached the tip, it broke off, sending him falling to the floor. The spreading stopped and reversed as the wound fully closed, pushing out a few last bits of rock. For a few moments, Frosty just lay there, taking a few heavy breaths, before getting back to his hooves.

Upon doing so, Frosty looked up, directly into three terrified faces.

‘Oh bollocks.’ He thought.

“Yep, I’m a Necromancer. Now you know.” He stated, not knowing what to do now – and he didn’t have to, as he was suddenly tackled by a crying Sweetie Belle.

“I told you not to do that again!” She cried into his fur, the other two joining her and shedding their combined relief directly into Frosty’s chest.

“Wait… you’re not afraid?” Frosty asked in surprise. He thought that the three would be just as xenophobic as the rest… but maybe there was hope after all?

“Why would we? This is awesome!” Scootaloo sniffled with a smile.

“Heh… yeah, it actually is.” Frosty agreed, but his smile fell quickly as he realized something. “But you can’t tell anypony else, understood?”

“What? Why?” Applebloom asked.

“Because… from what I gathered from miss Twilight’s books, sending me to the moon would be the mildest thing they would do to me…” Frosty implied.

“What?! But that’s not fair! You’re not an evil pony!” Sweetie protested.

“The world isn’t fair, my dear. Don’t worry, I’ve gotten along well enough without anypony else knowing. As long as you three are by my side, I don’t need anything else anyways.” Frosty smiled at them and they returned the smiles. “Now, let’s get out of here, okay?”

“But how? We can’t get back up an’ we don’t know where we are!” Applebloom pointed out.

“Actually, I think I do. If I’m correct, this should be the source of the Ponyville River. So, all we have to do is follow it downstream and we should reach Ponyville at some point.

The CMC looked at each other for a moment, gave each other encouraging smiles and nodded their agreement.

“Alright then, let’s go.”

“Sergeant Keen Eye and Private Quick Shot reporting in, your Highness!”

Princess Celestia sat on her throne, working her way through a tower of papers, while the two Guards stood before her. “At ease, Sergeant. I take it you have news from the Whitetail Woods?”

The Sergeant rubbed his foreleg uncomfortably. “Err, yes and no, your Highness. The news are that there are no news. The strange circle has remained undisturbed for a whole week now. Even the animals seem to avoid it at all cost. Whatever it is, it cannot be natural.”

“That was out of the question from the beginning, Sergeant. Have you found any more trails?”

“No, your Highness. No matter how many times we searched the area, there is only a single trail, leading from the middle of the circle directly out of it.” The sergeant answered.

“Maybe, whatever created the circle was summoned there?” The young private cut in, making the Sergeant quickly hush him.

“Please excuse him, your Highness, he doesn’t have too much experience yet and—“

“I don’t know what you’re apologizing for, Sergeant. This is a very strange phenomenon and a summoning might very well be a possibility…” Celestia trailed off, as she – coincidentally – pulled a report on the incident at the Best Young Fliers Competition from the pile. “… maybe not summoned, but fallen?” she muttered.

“Your Highness?”

“During the Best Young Fliers Competition, a young colt jumped to the rescue of an athlete, but didn’t return to the clouds. Instead, he apparently fell into the Whitetail Woods without a parachute.” The sergeant winced as he heard that. “My student and her friends apparently knew the colt and immediately went down searching for him. They found him, though strangely unscathed.” Celestia finished, taking a short pause.

“I will immediately send a letter to Twilight. Sergeant, have all the guards in Ponyville be on the lookout for any strange behaviour from a colt with an entirely white appearance, who is generally seen around a group called the ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders’. Apparently they already have a reputation, so there is no need for further details.”

“Yes, your Highness!”

Author's Note

So, now the CMC know Forsty's secret. And there's Changelings. what do you think the guards will do once they hear of that?

Also: Deleted Scene. (When they were hiding at Pinkie's)

He jerked around, to see what was going on and the sight he got was one straight out of the worst nightmares.

Behind him, there stood Pinkie Pie. Her mane hung down and she wore the most psychotic smile one could ever imagine. In her right hoof, she held a knife, lifted above her head and ready to strike.

“Time to make Cupcakes.~” She sang in a disturbingly distorted form of her voice.

And the knife went down.

The Drawbacks of being a Child

Frosty and Applebloom were walking through the apple orchard, looking into the trees in search for dead branches that needed to be removed. Applejack had given them this assignment after they had returned to the farmhouse the evening prior… together with a guardspony.

Turns out that adults don’t really believe a foal talking about strange bugponies in the Everfree Forest. Although, apparently they did believe the ‘Everfree’ – part, as the four foals were immediately escorted home by the guards, where they got a proper chewing-out by their respective peers. However, the guard couldn’t just ignore such a report, so they sent a small group out to have a look.

They found the cave, but as one might expect, the infiltrators were long gone. Instead, their knowledge of the cave further confirmed that they were indeed inside the Everfree Forest without permission or an adult, which made their situation even worse.

*plonk*

“OWW!” Frosty whined, as a falling branch knocked him out of his musings.

“Ehehe… sorry.” Applebloom said sheepishly. “Ah jus’ thought that maybe we can get done faster, if ah jus’ buck them branches out of th’ trees…”

Frosty rubbed the sore spot on his head a few more times, before giving Applebloom a questioning look. “Ok, first off: while I’m glad that you’re trying to think of ways to get done with this faster, I doubt that there’s too much of a difference between magically plucking them and kicking them down. We can go for two trees at the same time like this, though, so that should save us some time. Secondly: when did you get so strong? Weren’t you still too weak to applebuck just recently?”

“Uhhh yes, but them branches are dead, so they jus’ break off when ya give ‘em a little nudge.” Applebloom said.

“Oh… nevermind then.”

Frosty rubbed his head one last time, before he got back onto his hooves and checked their progress. Within the past two hours of work, they managed to finish about one and a half rows of apple trees.

“Say, Frosty… D’ya think mah sis is really gonna make us do this for a whole month?” Applebloom asked a little nervously.

“I wouldn’t say that she meant that as a time limit... more like a rough estimate of the time this will take.” Frosty answered as he looked over to the hundreds upon hundreds of rows that were still to be inspected.

“Awwwww, why’re we getting punished anyways? We jus’ tried ta find out who was watchin’ us!” Applebloom whined.

“Well, to them it probably just looked like we were making up excuses for going into the Everfree. Four foals, three of which are known for causing trouble, aren’t really all that believable to most adults. A shame, really.” Frosty mused, slowly moving to the next tree. “Though I’ve got to say, being the oldest is all well and good, but why did I get an extra punishment?”

“What?!”

“Yep, as long as we’re not done, I can’t go learn spells with miss Twilight.” Frosty said, pulling a dead branch from the tree in front of him.

“Oh wow, sis really seems miffed lately. This mornin’, I jus’ asked her what th’ word ‘fuck’ meant an’ she jus’ told me t’ never use it again and asked me where ah heard it.” Applebloom recounted absent-mindedly, while kicking the tree she was standing beside.

Frosty stopped in his tracks and looked over to Applebloom with a twitching eye. “And, pray tell, what did you tell her?”

“Hmm? Oh, ah told ‘er that ah herd ya say that an’ ah was wonderin what it meant.” She said with an innocent smile. Really, if it wasn’t for that smile, she would’ve had his forehoof come flying for her cheek. However, like that, it was merely bound for Frosty’s own forehead.

“Ugh… let’s just drop this and get on working. The faster we work, the sooner we will get this over with…”

“… And when you’re done with that, you come down and help me in the boutique!” Rarity commanded, as she and Sweetie Belle were standing in the basement, staring at all the dresses that Rarity had made and which had either come out of fashion or were simply not in season.

“But Rarity, I… why do I have to clean up the basement if you never go down here anyways? Can’t I just—“

“AH! Just because I rarely come in here doesn’t mean we can’t get this place a little cleaned up and since you have been a bad filly, I suppose this is a good way to punish you and get a few things done.” Rarity interrupted her sister, before turning around and trotting to the door. “And remember: I want them sorted by colour and season!”

The door closed, leaving Sweetie Belle alone. She stared after her sister for a moment, before sighing dejectedly and getting to work.

“I can’t believe you went into the Everfree! Not only that, but you lied to the guard about it! You’re grounded, young filly! And don’t even think about sneaking off again! This time, we will make sure to hide the keys to your door!” Aunt Lofty yelled, shutting the door on her, before Scootaloo could even bring a word in. She heard the key being turned from the other side, before both of her aunts walked away.

When she was alone, she sighed for a moment. Really, her aunts were nice and all, but they sometimes were worse than those old hags at the retirement home. Did they really think that just because her wings didn’t work, she couldn’t just climb out of the window?

She silently slid the window open and climbed out, before she stepped over the roof and slid down the gutter with practiced ease. She then looked around, ensuring herself that her aunts hadn’t laid an elaborate trap of some kind, before she sprinted off. Her target: the Everfree. After all, it couldn’t be that all those strange Bugponies just vanished, right? Well, as it seemed, they actually could, because when she reached the cave again, she didn’t find any clue to the presence of them, apart from the bridge, which was still destroyed.

Scootaloo walked through the caves for what felt like hours, trying to find a trace of the Bugponies, but coming out empty. Even after she had searched every corner of the cave twice, she didn’t find any—

“Wait… where am I?” Scootaloo asked aloud, as she realized that she didn’t know the inner layout of the cave. “Ehehehe, now don’t panic Scootaloo, eh, you can just… just trace back where you came from! Yeah, just… just turn around and… and go back, yeah.” She encouraged herself, turning around and taking the exact same path back, she used to get inside… at least as far as she could remember.

However, she came into more and more rooms that she didn’t recognize. Yet, she pushed on, hoping to find a way out, despite the odds.

Left, right, left, left again, one straight and another. By now, she was just randomly going wherever she thought was a good way to go. Ultimately, however, this only led to her becoming more and more lost, until…

“Oh no…” Scootaloo whined as she hit a dead-end. “Why… why did I have to get lost? Why did I even come back here? Why didn’t I just stay home?” She cried to herself, sniffling about while she leaned her forehead against the wall. “No! Frosty wouldn’t give up, so I won’t either! I’m sure I can—AAAAH!!”

Scootaloo turned around and was about to get moving again, when she suddenly screamed and jumped all the way back to the wall, when she saw what – or rather who – stood in her way.

Her path was blocked by a pony-esque silhouette with a hat, similar to the one Frosty now wore. However, this one was clearly an adult. It looked down at her with a grin like it had just found a prey that it had been chasing for all eternity. Slowly, it closed the distance to Scootaloo, who in turn pressed herself against the wall, trying to get away.

The strange pony came closer and closer, until it, when it was close enough, leaned down to touch its forehead against hers, before speaking to her in a low baritone voice.

“Well, hello, little filly.~”

Author's Note

You may take bets on what's going to happen next :raritywink:

The Advantages of being a Child

Frosty walked along the endless rows of apple trees, picking a dead branch here or there and making sure that the trees were all healthy. He did so by his lonesome, since Applebloom was currently out crusading together with Sweetie Belle, with Scootaloo being grounded by her aunts. Nevertheless, he did his job as good and as fast as he could. After all, the more he got done in as little time as possible, the less time he would need overall. However, the higher workload he put on himself also meant that, when the sun finally set, he was thoroughly tired out.

When he walked into the kitchen that evening to have dinner with the family, he found all of the seats occupied by their respective owners, just as the evenings before. He sat down, levitated his spoon and was just about to dig in when Granny Smith suddenly spoke up.

“What’d ah tell ya ‘bout manners, young colt? Ya gotta wait until everypony’s sittin’ before ya can eat!”

“Frosty, where’s Applebloom?” Applejack asked somewhat scoldingly.

Frosty looked to the empty seat beside him and recalled that he had tended to the trees alone today. “I don’t know, she wasn’t in the orchard today. I thought she was just busy with crusading and such?”

“Consarnit, Ah told’er she has ta come home early! Granny, ya can eat without me, ah’m gonna wait for young missus at th’ door.” Applejack said annoyedly, jumping off her seat and walking into the hallway.

“Well, ah guess that means that everypony’s sittin now. Ya can start eatin’, Frosty.” Granny Smith told him and he dug in. It wasn’t the first time that Applebloom showed up late after being with the crusaders and it likely wouldn’t be the last. After he was done eating, Frosty immediately went to bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

The next morning, he went down to eat breakfast, only to find Applejack leaning against the open door, still fast asleep.

‘Wait a moment…’ Frosty thought, as he went over to Applejack and shook her awake.

“Applejack! Hey Applejack, wake up!”

Applejack slowly opened her eyes, groggily mumbling to herself, as she slowly woke up.

“Why are you still down here? Did Applebloom not come home yesterday?”

Applejack’s eyes immediately shot open and she jumped up. “Applebloom! Applebloom, where is she?! What happened?!! Ah gotta find ‘er, Ah gotta—“ However Frosty stopped her.

“Applejack, calm down! Panicking isn’t gonna help. She probably just forgot the time and stayed at the boutique over night or something.”

“Ye-yer right… we just- we just gotta go ta Rarity an’ get her… And tell her ta tell me in advance.” Applejack said, more to calm herself than anything else. She then sprinted out and down the road towards Ponyville with Frosty only barely able to not lose her completely.

She rushed into town, turned a corner, went over the bridge and slammed into a white-coated mare with a purple mane.

“Ouch, excuse me, what-?! Applejack, darling, are you okay?” Rarity asked, as she recognized, whom she had collided with.

“RARITY!” Applejack shouted, grabbing the fashionista by her shoulders. “Did ya see th’ fillies? Did they stay over tonight?”

“Wh-What? No, I thought they were with you. I was actually on my way to get Sweetie Belle.”

Applejack let go of Rarity’s shoulders, visibly creeping closer and closer to a full-blown panic attack.

“Hey, maybe they went to Scootaloo’s! Y’know, to give her some company while she’s grounded or something.” Frosty quickly offered, before that could happen.

“Yes! Yes, you’re—you’re right! Come on!” Applejack commanded, sprinting off again.

“Well, a good morning jog is good for losing weight, I’ve heard.” Frosty commented, as he went after her.

“Excuse me?! Did you just imply that I’m fat?” Rarity huffed, before running after him.

Aplpejack had meanwhile already reached Scootaloo’s home. She rang the doorbell just before an out-of-breath Frosty and Rarity arrived behind her.

The door opened, revealing a middle-aged mare behind it.

“My, Applejack, what a surprise. What brings you here today?”

“Hello, miss. Did the fillies come by yesterday?” Applejack asked quickly, supressing her still growing panic.

“No, dear, why do you ask? Although that reminds me:” The mare looked over her shoulder and shouted into the house behind her. “Lofty, would you bring Scootaloo her breakfast?”

A short reply came, followed by the sound of hooves ascending a flight of stairs. Aunt Holiday turned back to Applejack, but just as she was about to continue their conversation, they heard a scream from upstairs.

Immediately, everypony present rushed upstairs to see what was going on. However, as they entered the room, they found nothing and nopony but Aunt Lofty…

‘Oh no…’

Applejack sat in the kitchen of the Farmhouse, although not by her own choice. Big Mac and Frosty had to keep her from running outside and tearing through half of Equestria to find her sister.

After they found Scootaloo’s room empty, the guard was informed and they immediately dispatched search parties. Rainbow Dash and the weatherteam volunteered as well, together with Fluttershy, who asked her animal friends for help.

Finally, somepony knocked on the door and before anypony could answer, Applejack was already out of her seat. She ripped the door open, revealing a rather unnerved-looking Twilight on the other side.

“Twilight?! Did ya find them?! Please tell me ya found them!” Applejack pleaded.

“Uh… yes, but… well… you’re not going to like where this is going.”

Applejack, Twilight and Frosty rushed towards the Everfree Forest, where a small group, consisting of Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and some guardsponies, were already gathered. In front of that group, at the entrance to the Everfree, stood another group, which consisted of five stallions… and a tied-up Scootaloo.

“If you don’t immediately let her go then I will personally kick you to the moon and back!” Rainbow Dash threatened.

“Oh, are you? Well, in that case, I’ll sadly have to kill them.” The stallion that held Scootaloo said with unnerving calmth.

“And therefore destroy your only asset. I think you should mull that one over again, mister.” Frosty interjected as he pressed through to the front.

The stallion that was previously speaking glared at Frosty. “You…!”

Meanwhile, Scootaloo’s eyes lit up and she cheered. “YAY, Frosty! You’re here!” Before she turned to the foalnapper. “You see him?! That’s our coltfriend and he’s gonna BEAT. YOU. UP!”

“Coltfriend?” The foalnapper asked, raising an eyebrow and smirking at Frosty.

“COLTFRIEND?!” Three mares from the crowd echoed, followed by the distinct sound of a hoof meeting its owner’s forehead.

“There is a time and place for everything, Scootaloo… this was neither.” Frosty mumbled into his forehoof while Rainbow, Applejack and Rarity were staring at him.

“Well well, young colt, surely you are worried beyond compare about your fillyfriends. How about that: You come with me to negotiate and you get to see them. Huh?” The foalnapper asked almost mockingly.

Frosty kept a straight face, although he was internally giving him a ‘are you serious?’-kind of look. “Okay, deal.” Frosty said, seemingly surprising the group behind him just as much as the one before him. He made a few steps forward, but was stopped by a hoof that suddenly landed on his shoulder.

“Frosty, wait, this is a—“ Twilight whispered to him, but Frosty cut her off.

“Trap? Yes, I know.” He said, continuing his walk. “Although for whom it will snap remains to be seen…”

Frosty followed the foalnappers deep into the Everfree Forest, until they came upon a small clearing. They walked into the middle of it and then, the leader called out in an almost synthetic sounding language.

The result was that several more bandits came out of the surrounding bushes, carrying Sweetie Belle and Applebloom with them. The group leader approached another one and saluted.

“Sir, the Element Bearers are now aware of the status of their sisters. I have also brought an additional hostage, which appears to be the colt that previously found our hideout.” He reported.

“Very good, Pharynx. You may rest and eat now.” The other said.

‘Ah, Pharynx… that would mean that these are Changelings…’ Frosty thought.

“And now to you, young colt…”

“Ah, yes, the negotiations.” Frosty said.

“Negotiations? Oh yes, there will be negotiations. Just not with you.” The leader said, before turning to another ‘bandit’ “Tie him up just like the others and then send a few drones out to watch these ponies.”

The drone saluted and went to fetch some rope.

“It’s a shame, really. I thought I could spare your lives, but apparently, I have no other choice.” Frosty said calmly.

“HA! You, spare our lives? Pff, you better watch your tongue, young colt! Such things can be misunderstood very quickly, you know?” The leader mockingly said to him.

“Yeah, I know.” Frosty replied, just as the drone came back with the ropes. “Yet, it doesn’t make my statement any less true.”

Before the leader could say anything else, the drone with the rope suddenly fell to the ground and its disguise dissolved. The leader looked at it in shock, before looking back at the colt and almost getting a heartattack, for where before lay his eyes was now just a deep black expanse, with two red dots forming floating pupils in the void.

Frosty, meanwhile, was otherwise occupied. For the first time in his short new life had he tasted the soul of a sapient being. The result was a complete overload on empowering warmth. He felt as if he just drunk ten strengthening potions at once, combined with an unhealthy dose of steroids. In short, he felt powerful… and he wanted more.

His eyes fell on a drone, who was trying to close in and tackle him, but Frosty was faster. With one short tap into his soul, he stole the changeling’s energy, empowering him even more.

Two other changelings came from behind him and tried to surprise him, however no soul escaped Frosty’s detection. He spun around and zapped one changeling with an overcharged lightning bolt, while he turned the other into a zombie.

Five more changelings tried to take him head-on, but Frosty simply erected a shield, which was easily powerful enough to block all of their attacks and while they were busy, his Zombie came in from the side and mauled two of them, while the other three were killed by Frosty.

The rest of the changelings suddenly came storming out of the forest, in a vain attempt to fight him off. They all fired their magic at him, but his Zombie jumped between them, getting completely destroyed in the process. Frosty used that moment to unleash a mighty lightning strike that zapped through their lines, killing them immediately.

At last, only Pharynx and the Commander were left. Both of them charged at him, but they were no match. He simply deflected all of their attacks, making some of them even fling back into them.

The sheer hopelessness of their situation reflected in their eyes, making Frosty’s feeling of power grow even hotter. Truly, this was an absolutely glorious moment, it was exhilarating, it was—

“FROSTY!” Suddenly a terrified cry came from behind him.

Frosty turned around and saw the three fillies that he called his marefriends, who were now looking almost horrified at him. This look alone was enough to take him out of his rampage. The red curtain in front of his eyes vanished and he could think clearly again.

He looked at Pharynx and the Commander, who were completely out of breath by now… and corrupted their souls.

“Go to the cave where we first found you in.” He then commanded his new servants, who bowed and vanished into the forest.

Frosty then rushed over to the crusaders, who were still tied up, and cut their ties. Immediately, all three of them jumped at him and hugged him tight, crying their collective relief into Frosty’s coat. He, meanwhile, looked around the scene and winced at the amount of bodies.

‘I should probably clean this up, shouldn’t I?’ He thought, before using his necromancy and forcing the bodies to rapidly decay.

‘There, better.’

He then turned his attention to the three fillies, who were still clutching him tight. “There there, everything’s alright. Come on, your sisters are already worried enough.” He said, though the fillies wouldn’t budge.

“Frosty… what was that just now? Was that really you?” Sweetie Belle asked anxiously.

“I- uh… no… that was not me, at least not entirely. I don’t know, something came over me and then I couldn’t stop anymore… sorry you had to see this.”

Sweetie sighed in relief and leaned into his chest again. “Good. For a moment there, I was afraid I was in love with a serial killer.” She joked, before leaning upwards and giving him a kiss.

“Hey, me too!” Scootaloo protested.

“Me three!” Applebloom chimed in, before both claimed their share.

“I love you too. Now come on, your sisters are probably worried sick by now.”

An hour later, Frosty found himself at a table in Sugarcube Corner. Across from him sat three mares, one of which was giving him a very serious look.

“Alright, Frosty. I’m pretty sure you know, why you’re here.” Applejack said seriously.

“I think I do, yes.” Frosty replied.

“Okay, well I don’t. Why are we here?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Wha- seriously Rainbow? You heard what Scootaloo said back there, right?”

“Yeah, what about it?” Rainbow asked again.

“Seriously? SHE SAID HE’S COURTING OUR SISTERS, darnit!” Applejack raised her tone a bit.

“Woah, no need to be so loud. Firstly: I’m not Scootaloo’s sister, so I really don’t have a say in this and secondly: Even if I had a say in this, I wouldn’t mind. I mean, why would I? This colt is almost as awesome as I am!”

“Really?! What about you, Rarity? Ya have ta say something against this, right?” Applejack demanded.

“Oh darling, I’m very sorry, but I have to agree with Rainbow here. I think our sisters are old enough to make this decision and even if they weren’t: Frosty has shown to be a true Gentlecolt. He is studysome, chivalrous and handsome at that. No, I do not have anything to say against this arrangement.” Rarity said.

Applejack’s face fell into a frown at that. “Are you guys serious? Ah mean, ah’ll tell ya, what I’ve got t’say about this: Frosty, you’re basically Applebloom’s brother, and—“

“But I’m not.” Frosty interjected.

“I know, I mean—“

“Darling, come now, this is not the true reason for this, isn’t it? Be honest, you’re just afraid that they have to go through the same as you did, right?” Rarity cut in.

“What do you mean with that?” Frosty asked.

“Ah yeah, that. Sometime during her last grade, there was this one colt she really liked. She managed to hook up with him and did all this mushy schmoozy stuff, only to find him in bed with somepony else.” Rainbow explained casually.

“RAINBOW! You don’t talk about such sensitive things so casually!” Rarity chided.

“So… You basically just think that I’ll just run off with the next best filly that flutters her eyelashes at me, huh?” Frosty noted. “Applejack, don’t worry. I assure you that’s not going to happen. I love them. All three of them and I be damned if I ever be unfaithful to them.” He assured to her.

Applejack stared deep into his eyes, looking for some sign of deception. When she found none, she sighed and let her head hang.

“Alright… Ah can see yer not lyin’. Ah think Ah’m just a bit overprotective…” Applejack conceded. “An’ ah know ya ain’t a bad colt, Frosty, please don’t misunderstand that.”

“I completely understand Applejack. I promise, I will take good care of them.” Frosty assured.

“Yeah, I know you will. But no foals until they’re 20, ya hear?!”

Snapping a salute, Frosty replied “Yes, ma’am!”

Author's Note

Sorry for the long wait, my main project sucked up all of my resources these past two weeks and I actually barely managed to squeeze this one in. Also, I'm sorry if this chapter seems weird in some way, 'cause I was literally writing this from 1- 5am :pinkiecrazy:

The value of Information

Author's Note

A little heads-up before you read: this chapter is basically one giant info-dump. Sorry to all those that don't care about this all and you're welcome to everyone else. Next chapter will be a proper one again ^^

The value of Information

After the little talk Applejack forced him into, Frosty was quite glad to hear that at least the punishment they got was alleviated, now that their claims have proven to at least be close to the truth – something that he immediately made use of by busying himself with another project of his.

He went into the Everfree, equipped with a rope and followed the path they had originally taken to get to the cave. Two Changelings were waiting for him inside of it and bowed before him as he entered.

“My lord, we have done as you ordered. We have also taken care that nopony followed us.” Pharynx reported.

“Very good. Now, I need you to tie yourself up with this.” Frosty said, levitating the rope over to the two changelings.

“Certainly, my master.”

A few seconds later, the two changelings were tied up back-to-back, sitting on their haunches.

“Is there anything else you need, my master?” The Commander asked.

“No. At least not from you directly. I am now going to run a few experiments and, as much as I hate to say this, but this requires that I remove you entirely.” Frosty stated.

“It is our purpose to serve. If we can no longer serve you then we will be honoured to join you once more.” Pharynx said, bowing his head.

“I am glad to hear that.” After saying that, Frosty sucked the synthetic souls out of the servants. Immediately after he did that, the original souls in their bodies retook control.

“What?! Where am I?! What was that just now?!” The commander shouted. “And why in Chrysalis’s name am I tied up?!”

“Oh my, you are quite the noisy type, aren’t you?” Frosty remarked, as he went over and stood before the changeling.

“You! What are you?! No normal Pony could ever have the strength to defeat an entire infiltrator cell with such ease!”

Frosty grinned from ear to ear as he looked down upon the tied up commander. “Oh, you are right – in a sense. I am probably just as much a normal pony as you are, with the difference that I don’t have to disguise myself to look the part.”

“Then what are you?! You are neither changeling, nor pony. That much I can tell.”

Frosty chuckled darkly. “Oh dear commander, that is not for you to know. But, speaking of knowing: I would like to know, where your hive is.”

“I am NOT going to tell you!” the commander shouted defiantly.

“I know… But I think I can change that.” Frosty implied, sending a rock from nearby flying for the commander’s head. It impacted near the temple, creating a small gash that drew green blood.

“OW! If you think that I would cave from such minor torture then you are utterly mistaken!”

“Oh no, never would I think that something like this would be successful. However, this little wound of yours gives me a good basis for a far more painful procedure… for you at least.”

Frosty concentrated on the cells around the wound and corrupted them with his necromancy, intending for them to infect the flesh around them and cause the other cells to die off, however nothing along those lines happened. Instead, to Frosty`s great surprise, the corrupted cells began to rapidly multiply, sealing the wound within seconds of applying his magic. Furthermore, once the wound was completely sealed, the corruption was almost immediately fought back, effectively healing the wound, without even leaving a scar.

“Huh… that’s interesting.” Frosty remarked, looking slightly baffled at the effect of his ministrations.

“HAH! You want to repeat hurting and healing me?! Sorry kid, but I’ll be damned if I let anything slip to such a laughable method!” The commander mocked.

“And so will I. But alas, I have to thank you. Your defiance has led me to a very interesting discovery.” Frosty said in a pleased tone.

“I don’t care what you’ve gained from this. I will not tell you anything, even if I have to give my life for it!”

“Oh, I know you wouldn’t, commander. However, you might help your subordinate there to tell me…”

“NEVER IN A THOUSAND YEARS would I encourage anyling to commit treason!” The commander declared.

“And I don’t need you to… in fact, I don’t even need you at all. I just need your body…” Frosty said, letting his words sink in for a moment, before he pulled the commander’s soul out, turning his body into a zombie. He then quietly commanded the zombie to stay put, while he busied himself with Pharynx.

“So… now that your commander has refused my offer, I ask you: where is your hive?”

Pharynx only showed a brief smirk, before going back to an unreadable expression. “I can’t remember that you have made an offer. All I have heard are demands and weak threats.”

“Then I will make a deal with you right now. If you tell me where your hive is, then I will let you live and escape unharmed.”

“PAH! And why would I need your promise for that?” Pharynx laughed him off. “Even if you tried to harm me, I would still just slip away.”

“Oh really? In that case…” Frosty turned his head slightly and spoke to the commander. “Commander, dinner is served.”

As soon as he said that, the commander went into a frenzy, trying to get to his promised meal, but being hindered greatly by the ties. Pharynx, however, looked completely unimpressed.

“You see: I love pitfights and I would love to see you pitted against your own commander.” Frosty stated.

“Pff, you are a terrible liar, you know that?” Pharynx laughed. “You can promise me everything you want, I don’t buy it. Your eyes are giving it away – all this time, you had never intended on actually letting me live in the end.”

“Well, you caught me there. That doesn’t mean that your death has to be painful, though. If you tell me the location of your hive, then I will make sure that your death is swift and painless.”

“I don’t fear a painful death. Give it up, you are never going to gain any information from me!” Pharynx taunted.

“I will make you go through the flames of Tartarus a thousand times over before I even think about finally letting you die!” Frosty threatened.

“Bring it.” Came Pharynx’s reply.

For a moment, both stared at each other, before Frosty continued talking. “You know, it is a shame. If you won’t tell me, then somepony else will have to. Maybe it will be your friends? Maybe your family? Whoever it will be and whatever I do to them, it will be your fault.”

Pharynx suddenly started to laugh loudly, mockingly. “Oh no… that’s just too good. We told these fillies the same thing! And you know what? Even they didn’t fall for that. As much as I don’t care about you ponies, I respected them for holding tight as long as they did. It didn’t surprise me at all that what we did to them next broke them, though.”

For a moment, Frosty fell silent, feeling anger slightly boil up inside of him. “What did you do?” He asked as neutrally as possible.

“You know, ponies aren’t really my type, but if the Queen orders it, you know… might as well enjoy it.” Pharynx implied.

“What did you do?!” Frosty asked again, this time a bit more forcefully.

“But really, these three were very young, even for my tastes. But the way they felt… OOH so absolutely gorgeous. It was as if I was poking around inside of pure love.”

“WHAT. DID. YOU. DO?!”

“Well…” Pharynx leaned in a bit, almost touching Frosty’s snout as he gave him a very smug grin. “I suggest you keep a good look on them. Especially that orange one might lay some eggs in a few weeks…”

With that, every last constraint for Frosty was gone. He let out a feral scream of rage and ripped the soul out of Pharynx’s body. When he noticed what he had done, he panicked, quickly slapping the soul back inside the body to fix his mistake. The moment the soul was inserted again, the body indeed showed movement, however something seemed off… the Zombie had fallen completely silent.

“Good day, my master. How may I serve you today?” Pharynx asked the stunned Frosty.

“Master? Wait, are you a servant?” Frosty asked after a moment of stunned silence.

“A servant? Why no, my master. I am an Elder Lich.“ Pharynx answered.

“So there is more types than just servants and zombies?”

“Yes and no, my master. The ‘Zombie’, as you refer to them, is just a very low-energy form of undead. The more energy you spend in our creation, the more sentient, more intelligent and more powerful we become.” Pharynx answered.

“Ah, that makes sense. So, what is the difference between an Elder Lich and a servant?” Frosty asked further.

Pharynx seemed a bit displeased at the question, but answered anyways. “There are quite a few differences, my master. For one, the host of a servant is still alive. That brings with it that servants are better at displaying emotion, but also forces them to take in materiel sustenance. Us Elder Liches, on the other hoof, don’t feel any emotion and thus can only mimic them, however we don’t need any food whatsoever. We only need a small upkeep in soul energy to keep our flesh from rotting. Furthermore, acquiring us Liches is, mathematically speaking, cheaper than acquiring a servant, as servants actually require you, my master, to give up energy in order to create them, whereas an Elder Lich merely needs the original soul of the being it is to inhabit.”

“Okay, so what about similarities? And more importantly: if Elder Liches are so cheap, why hasn’t Equestria been overrun by them by now?” Frosty inquired further.

“To answer the first question: Both, Elder Liches and servants, can use basic necromantic abilities, like corrupting an individual’s body, and also the slightly more advanced ability of taking their opponent’s soul energy. Basically, we Elder Liches can upkeep ourselves. Also, both of us retain our host’s memories, giving us the ability to take our host’s place in their former social environment. As for the latter question: For a Necromancer to summon an Elder Lich, the Necromancer has to fulfil two conditions. Firstly: the Necromancer has to have taken the soul of at least one sapient being and secondly: they have to remain sane afterwards.”

“You mean it isn’t common for Necromancers to remain sane?”

“Indeed it would seem so. Most Necromancers are Unicorns and Unicorns channel all their magic – whether it be Necromancy or not – through their horns. Since Necromancers store their collected souls within their own, all that Energy is conducted past the user’s brain. Apparently, that causes the users to experience an emotional overload which is proportional to the power of the souls collected. Since sapient souls are the most powerful after those of alicorns, the overload they cause has seen many Necromancers go insane, if they did not outright die from the immediate effects.”

“So basically, becoming a Necromancer already in itself carries a risk of self-destruction? Huh, that would explain why I haven’t seen or heard of anyone other than me… Say, how do you know all of that? It just seems a little weird that the servants and undead I created know more about my abilities than I know myself.” Frosty asked further.

“Why, because we are connected to the great expanse, of course! Just like you are, my master!”

“The great expanse? What is that?” Frosty asked almost sheepishly.

Pharynx looked a bit confused, but shrugged it off as a simple lack of terminology and knowledge. “The great expanse, my lord, is the collective knowledge of every necromancer that lived and lives and contains every piece of knowledge regarding necromancy that your predecessors have collected over time.”

“Oh really? Heh, that sounds like a very neat thing to have.” Frosty remarked.

“Quite indeed sir, but… excuse me if this question is disrespectful towards you, my master, but are you not connected to the expanse?” Pharynx inquired tentatively.

“I’m afraid not. Maybe it is because I’m not from this world… say, how exactly does the expanse work?”

“In theory, it is very simple. Once a Necromancer has found out about something new regarding necromancy, it is automatically added to the pool of knowledge, whether they like it or not. The closest analogy I could provide to this would be an art gallery that magically acquired every single painting in existence the moment it was finished.” Pharynx described.

“Did my new findings get added to it?”

“Not as far as I am aware. Granted, you cannot trace back, which exact individual the knowledge came from, but you can feel the age of it. Currently, it seems as if there haven’t been any new findings in over five thousand years.”

Frosty rubbed his chin slightly. “Well, that would certainly explain, why there is so little written about Necromancers. If we assume that a Necromancer has to be at least somewhat active to discover something new, it is safe to say that the last actually active Necromancer died over five thousand years ago.”

“That stands to reason, yes. Even so, or rather because of it, I would advise caution, my master. As you might already know, Necromancers cannot die in the traditional way, meaning that every Necromancer since has either gone insane or been eliminated by an outside force.” Pharynx cautioned.

“Indeed, which is why my next question is: how do Necromancers die?”

“Generally, if your body is destroyed, your soul will use up its excess energy to rebuild it. This process will start, even if your body is completely atomized, but will take more energy, according to the degree of destruction. If you don’t have enough energy for a full recovery, you will only regain a portion of your original body, with the rest being added once enough energy is available. That is, if you are lucky enough that that portion is able to sustain itself long enough. If you completely run out of energy, then your soul will vanish. Nopony knows exactly what happens afterwards, other than that you are gone. As for the acquisition of the energy, there are three steps that your soul will go through in an attempt to acquire energy: At first, it searches the immediate area for anything that lives. Should there be nothing then you will receive energy from your servants and undead in the order of their distance to you. Lastly, if the other two fail, your soul will tap its own resources.”

“Ah, well thank you very much. That should be enough information for now. I guess I should be heading back to Ponyville now. In the meantime, I would like you to take as much changeling equipment back here, there might be something useful in there. The former Commander will help you with this.” Frosty commanded.

“Yes sir, it will be done.” Pharynx confirmed.

“Good. Also, you will serve as my personal access to this ‘great expanse’ from now on.”

Pharynx’s eyes lit up for a moment and he made a deep bow. “I feel honoured that you bestow such great responsibility to me, my master.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll be off now.” Frosty said, leaving the cave.

The next Step

Applejack didn’t know, what to think anymore. Within just two days had she learned that her sister and Frosty had formed a herd, just after having her taken from her, only to then have them brought back by Frosty. To say that she was conflicted was an understatement.

She set up a meeting with Frosty to face her confliction and as a cover-up she also invited Rainbow Dash and Rarity. Or was it because she also sought guidance from them? She didn’t even know that herself and while she wasn’t entirely comfortable with the setup just yet, she had to accept that Applebloom was growing up.

However, her worries kindled up yet again, when a letter arrived the day after. It was an invitation from Twilight to have some tea and discuss a few things, a normal invitation, really. Except for one sentence, one that made Applejack tense up the moment she read it:

‘Frosty might be dangerous.’

With mixed feelings, she stood in front of twilight’s library later that evening, nervously shifting from hoof to hoof. She was hesitant to knock, as she wasn’t quite sure if she really wanted to know what Twilight had found. That decision was not for her to make, though, as the door opened before she could even lift a hoof.

“Oh, hi Applejack, come in! Everypony is already waiting for you.” Spike greeted from behind the door.

Applejack saw Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Rainbow and Rarity sitting at a round table in the middle of the library. She walked in slowly, almost hesitantly and that hesitation was made even worse, when she saw the serious look Twilight was wearing.

“Applejack, darling! I’m glad that you could make it.” Rarity greeted.

“Yeah… to be honest with ya, ah can’t believe it mahself.” Applejack replied. “So, Twilight, what did ya mean with Frosty bein’ dangerous?”

“Exactly what I said.” Twilight answered. “I ran a few scans on him after he came back from the forest. The results are… strange, to say the least.”

“That doesn’t surprise me one bit, honestly. We have all seen what this colt is capable of, so being special just makes his story more believable.” Rarity remarked.

“I know and it’s not just him being special that worries me, but the ways how he is special.” Twilight clarified.

“Well, we’re all here. Shoot.” Rainbow urged.

“Okay, well for one, his age seems rather strange. Actually, using the singular here wouldn’t seem to be correct in the first place, as his biological age, his actual bodily age and the age of his soul seem to differ greatly from one another.” Twilight stated. “His biological age seems to be somewhere in his mid-teens, while his soul is actually 22 years old. His body, in turn, seems to only exist for a few days by now.”

A collective ‘WHAT?!’ echoed through the Library shortly thereafter.

“Wait wait wait, you mean that he’s actually 22 years old?” Rainbow asked quickly.

“Yes, that is what I just said.” Twilight confirmed.

Rainbow threw her hooves upward at that and cheered. “Woohoo! I’m not a paedophile!”

This earned her a round full of raised eyebrows.

“What? You gotta admit: He’s pretty awesome for being a unicorn.”

“Excuse me?! Are you saying that unicorns are in some way inferior?!” Rarity fumed.

“That doesn’t matter right now!” Twilight shouted. “I mean, I get it: the mental age can be ahead of the biological age when the subject is intelligent and I don’t doubt in the slightest that Frosty IS very intelligent… but how does his body only exist for a few days by now?! HOW?!”

Everypony went silent, none of them having an answer or even any kind of excuse for that.

“And that’s not the only thing that’s strange about him.” Twilight continued. “In addition to his strange age, I could not detect any mana in him, despite him being a Unicorn.”

“What?! Darling, are you sure that’s correct? You trained him in magic yourself, did you not?” Rarity cut in.

“Yes I did and I ran this scan multiple times for this exact reason, but the results were always the same… however, I think I know where he gets his power from: His soul is roughly 52.49 times as strong as a normal one.”

“’Roughly’? Wow, Twilight, I mean, I’m not an egghead or something, but that sounds pretty precise.” Rainbow remarked.

“I still had to round that though, so it is just ‘rough’.”

“And why is that concerning? Ah mean, Ah don’t know how souls ’re supposed t’ be workin’, but if his soul’s stronger than ours, that ain’t a bad thing, ain’t it?” Applejack asked.

“I’m sorry Applejack, but it… it actually might be a bad thing. Firstly, soul-energy is far more potent than mana is, when used for magic. While by itself that isn’t a problem, soul magic is very taxing on the brain and can make the caster go insane. That is why it has been outlawed thousands of years ago. And that isn’t even the really bad part… You know, that extra energy... it has to come from somewhere.” Twilight implied, letting everypony else get to the answer themselves.

“Wait… you don’t mean…”

“Exactly that, Rainbow Dash. He must’ve killed at least 49 Ponies in order to get to that level… and seeing as we never found a trace of these foalnappers, I think I can imagine, where at least some of that comes from.”

“Well, I mean, if I were him, I probably would’ve done the same thing and—wait, what do you mean with some?” Rainbow asked.

“We can’t be certain that he hasn’t killed anything or anypony else lately… and then there’s still that weird body-age.” Twilight clarified.

“Oh no… Frosty would never kill an innocent pony… right, Applejack?” Fluttershy asked hopefully.

“Ah’m… not sure, Flutters. From all Ah’ve seen from him, no, he wouldn’t… but then again, he never told any of us about this.” Applejack said solemnly. “So, Twi, what do we do now?”

“Nothing for now. I have sent a letter to Princess Celestia, with every detail that I could find out. She will know the right thing to do, I’m sure. In the meantime, we better don’t interact too much with him. He might get suspicious if we spend too much time near him.” Twilight said.

“Alright… but ah don’t like it one bit, jus’ so ya know.”

“Oh, come on, Applejack, are you still miffed that he hooked up with your sister?” Rainbow teased.

“It ain’t just that, Rainbow! If he were a normal pony, then ah’d be fine with it, but now? Ah dunno what Ah’d do if Applebloom was his next victim!”

“You don’t really think that he would do something like that, right? Come on, it’s not like he’s some kind of a serial killer or something. You’ll see: tomorrow we all come back here and Twilight will have a letter from the Princess that says that we don’t have to worry about anything. Don’t worry, everything will be fine!”

Later that day, Frosty went to the CMC Clubhouse alone. Normally, he would do that together with Apple Bloom, however Applejack said that it would be better for her to stay at home for a while. Not that he could blame her, really, looking at the past events.

Still, Frosty was quite surprised to see only Scootaloo in the Clubhouse when he entered and to hear that Sweetie Belle was missing for the exact same reason on top of that.

“Sooo… What do we do?” Scootaloo asked almost sheepishly.

“I don’t know. I mean, we could do some crusading together, without Sweetie and Apple Bloom.” Frosty offered.

“Just the two of us? Heh, sounds awesome.” Scootaloo said.

“… Okay, any ideas?”

Scootaloo seemed to be mentally absent for a moment, before suddenly jumping up and buzzing her little wings. “I know, I know!!” She squeaked, before rushing out of the Clubhouse and down towards the barn.

“Scootaloo, wait!” Frosty shouted after her, but the Filly quickly vanished out of sight.

He quickly got himself together and followed her, but only made it about halfway down the orchard, before he heard the loud clapping of wood on wood. Before he could place the sound in any way, he found himself suddenly enveloped in a strange shade and when he looked up, he saw the shape of a small filly slowly growing larger above him.

‘Oh bollocks…’

This day did not look like it would be a good one… at least that was what Scootaloo first thought when she woke up that morning. The main reason for that was the itch.

She had felt it already a year ago. Back then, her aunts told her that it meant that she was becoming an adult and she was excited because of it. However, then she learned that she would have to go through this for a few weeks every year now and thus her excitement almost immediately vanished.

She got out of bed, already feeling how that infuriating itch started spreading between her hind legs, and went to her cabinet, where her ‘secret weapon’ lay. In truth, it was not so much a ‘secret weapon’, as it was a medicine that Aunt Lofty had given her when she had that itch the first time. She didn’t exactly know, what that medicine was called, but it made the itch go away for a while. She took one pill of that and then another pill that Auntie Holiday had given her a few days ago, saying that it was something against ‘unwelcome surprises’, whatever that meant.

Feeling the itch finally subside, Scootaloo’s mood dramatically increased. She went down, had breakfast with her aunts and then went to school, where she met up with Frosty, Sweetie and Apple Bloom.

Her school day went just about as one might expect it to go, after she had been foalnapped and rescued. The CMC were the centre of attention, second only to Frosty himself, who seemed more than just annoyed at that.

After school, the three went home to drop off their stuff and then met at the Clubhouse… except that, when Scootaloo came to pick up Sweetie Belle, Rarity politely slammed the door on her. More than just slightly confused over the why and – more importantly – the how, Scootaloo thus made her way to the Clubhouse alone. There she found out that Apple Bloom was in a similar predicament, which left only her and Frosty to do the crusading for today.

However, as soon as he entered, she felt that something was wrong. Not with him though, but with herself. She felt as if she was dazed, mesmerized by the white colt in front of her and only barely able to form a coherent thought.

She barely managed to shake the daze out of her head, before awkwardly looking at Frosty and sheepishly asking: “Sooo… what do we do?”

“I don’t know. I mean, we could do some crusading together, without Sweetie and Apple Bloom.” Frosty offered.

“Just the two of us? Heh, sounds awesome.” Scootaloo said, her mind suddenly drifting away to some weird thoughts. What was wrong with her? She suddenly felt a lot lighter than usual, as if she could float away at any moment.

She didn’t even register that Frosty had replied, before her mind already came up with something: she felt so utterly light that even her underdeveloped wings should keep her in the air. All that she needed was a little starting aid… and she knew exactly how she would get that.

“I know, I know!!” She squeaked, before rushing out of the Clubhouse and down towards the barn, where the Catapult from one of their earlier crusades was stored. Without thinking too much about it, she pushed the Catapult out of the barn, climbed into the bucket and cut the restraining rope.

The very next moment, she found herself flying through the air and buzzing her little wings. At first, it seemed to be working, but soon she noticed that her wings were not responsible for that. She noticed with dismay that she wasn’t actually gaining any speed and past a certain point, found herself rapidly losing altitude.

Only now did it hit her, what a profoundly stupid idea it had been and she asked herself over and over again, what had brought her to do this. After all, she had already tested this method of flight multiple times before!

Her rapid descent was abruptly halted, when she impacted something that was – luckily – a lot softer than the ground. She and her cushion rolled a few meters through the orchard, before they came to a stop, with it landing atop her.

With a slight daze, she opened her eyes slowly, and noticed with a blush that her ‘cushion’ had indeed been Frosty. Her mind became hazy the moment she noticed this and her heart went into overdrive… and the itch returned.

Frosty slowly stirred awake, groggily looking down onto the filly beneath him. At that moment, he noticed a sweet scent that filled the air around them and a weirdly hazy feeling.

Scootaloo met Frosty’s eyes and felt herself drawn towards them. Her body moved as if on autopilot and her lips met Frosty’s in a passionate kiss.

WARNING: PORN SECTION AHEAD!

Her heart banged against her chest, just as Frosty’s did against his… and there was also something else pulsing further down.

“Frosty? There is something pulsing… down there.” Scootaloo said, when they parted lips again.

Frosty recoiled, almost jumping up from her. “Oh, s-sorry, I wasn’t—“

“No, no, it’s… okay.” Scootaloo assured. “I just… Frosty, I feel weird.” She whined, pulling Frosty in again and continuing their kiss. However, this motion caused Frosty to rub his penis along Scootaloo’s clit, sending a sharp impulse into Scoot’s nerves.

“AH!” She gasped. “Frosty, what was… Hng!”

Seeing her reaction, Frosty kept up his ministrations, eliciting moan after moan from the filly beneath him.

“AH! Frosty, I—I feel weird!” she whined. “It feels good, but also… I feel empty, but down there.” She said, blushing heavily. “I… I’m weird, right?”

“Oh no, not at all. You’re perfectly normal and I know what I can do to help you.” Frosty assured her, pulling back one last time, before aligning himself further downward and pressing lightly against her entrance.

Scootaloo gasped when he made contact, looking down in confusion and meeting Frosty’s eyes. “Frosty, I… what are you doing? My aunts told me that place down there is special and that—Ahn!”

“It is a special place. A special place for the one you love… and you love me, right, Scootaloo?” Frosty asked softly and Scootaloo nodded. “And you trust me, right?” Scootaloo nodded again. “That`s good. Then lean back and let me help you feel good, okay?” He said, slowly coming back up and going for another kiss, while simultaneously pressing his dick into her tunnel.

At first, there was a lot of resistance, before suddenly, a third of Frosty’s shaft sank in at once. Scootaloo let out a sudden, loud moan. She felt like she had just been spilt apart, but instead of pain, she felt pleasure rise up from within her.

She felt how Frosty’s shaft sunk further and further into her, before meeting a dead end. Then, they just laid there for a moment, relishing in the bliss of being connected, before Frosty pulled back again.

He began softly pumping in a rhythm, all while keeping their lips connected. Scootaloo moaned into his mouth, while their tongues danced about. She relished the taste of his saliva, the scent of his sweat-soaked fur and the warmth she felt from within. She felt him rubbing her from within, nudging her inner wall whenever he hilted.

His motions slowly increased in frequency, slamming their hips together in quick succession. His breathing became heavy and she could feel his shaft throbbing inside of her and then…

With one last shove, he hilted himself again, letting out a heavy grunt. Scootaloo felt how something hot was pushed inside her, eliciting a pleasured moan with every spurt she felt.

The spurts subsided and Frosty collapsed onto Scootaloo, both panting in the aftermath of their shared bliss.

PORN SECTION END

“Wow…” Scootaloo panted. “That was awesome.”

“Yeah.” Frosty agreed. However, now that the pheromones in the air dissipated and he was freed of his haze, did he slowly come to grasp the repercussions of his actions. “No…” He exhaled. “No no no no!” He panicked, shooting up and getting a good look at what he did.

“Frosty? What’s wrong?” Scootaloo asked in concern, but Frosty didn’t react at first, instead going further down the panic spiral.

“Oh no, this is bad, this is really bad.” He said to himself, while pacing back and forth.

“What’s bad?! Frosty, you’re scaring me!” Scootaloo whined.

“Scootaloo, do you know, how foals are made?” He asked suddenly.

“I-what? Euh, no? Why?”

“Well, because that’s exactly what we just did.”

Scootaloo’s eyes went wide and she looked down at her belly. For a moment, she actually felt a bit happy, but that was quickly replaced by dread. She knew she was far too young to properly care for a foal, nevermind actually giving birth!

“What?! Frosty, I—I don’t know if I can—“

“No, you can’t and I know that full well. Oh no, this can’t be happening, this—“ He cut himself off, stomping a hoof to steady himself and then told himself: “Stay calm, Frozen Blood, stay calm, there is still hope!” He then turned to Scootaloo and asked her: “Are you on birth control?”

“Birth what? I-I don’t know what that is!” Scootaloo answered anxiously.

“Did you take any pills today?” Frosty clarified.

“I—Yes, I took those pills that Aunt Lofty gave me when I first got that heat-thing.” Scootaloo said.

“What kind of pills? Do you know that?” Frosty pressed.

“N-no, I just… it makes the itch go away, that`s all I know!”

“So they’re heat suppressants, huh?” Frosty concluded, letting out a groan and starting to pace again.

“W-Well, there are also those t-that Auntie Holiday gave me.”

Frosty’s attention was immediately restored, as he whipped around and pressed his snout into Scootaloo’s. “And what do those do?”

“I don’t know! She just said that they were ‘against unwelcome surprises’ or something!”

Frosty immediately relaxed a lot and even seemed to smile a bit. “That sounds… promising. Do you know, what these pills do exactly?”

“Uh… no, but I still have the packaging. I can have a look.” Scootaloo said.

“Then we will do that!” Frosty said, helping Scootaloo up and pushing her ahead. “Go on, lead the way!”

They arrived at Scootaloo`s house a few minutes later. Auntie Holiday opened the door for them and Scootaloo immediately sped past her, up into her room, leaving Frosty alone for a very awkward greeting.

“Uh… hello, it’s, ummm, good to see you again?” He said sheepishly.

“Yes… it is good to—“ Holiday started to say, before she started to sniff around.

‘Oh bollocks.’ Frosty thought, as he remembered what happened to a mare’s pheromones after sex.

He tried to keep a straight face, but failed miserably, while Auntie Holiday continued her sniffing. When she stopped and pulled back, she looked down at him with a knowing smirk and called over her shoulder: “Loooftyyyy~ You owe me twenty Bihiiiiiiiits~”

“What, they really did it?! Holy Celestia, the foals these days sure grow up fast.” Frosty heard Aunt Lofty call back.

He let out a small sigh of relief. “So I assume, that pill really was a birth control pill?” He asked hopefully.

“Oh, it seems somepony was careless for a moment there, huh?” She asked, leaning down to him with a teasing grin.

“Uhh, yes, you could say that…” Frosty admitted sheepishly.

“Ohohoho, don’t worry. Auntie Holiday saw that coming. You are perfectly safe.” Holiday assured.

Frosty let out a breath that he didn’t know he was holding and wiped his forehead clean of sweat. Right at that moment, Scootaloo re-emerged from her room and came hopping down the stairs.

“Frosty! I found the pills and their name, but I don’t know what that means!” She said.

“Don’t worry, Scoots. Your aunt already confirmed that they’re birth control pills.” Frosty assured.

Only now did Scootaloo notice her aunt standing beside Frosty. She looked up at her with a sheepish smile and her ears pressed to the back of her head. “Ehehehe, hello, Auntie Holiday.”

“Hello, Scootaloo. I heard you had a little ‘adventure’ today?” Holiday greeted back, with the same knowing smirk she had used on Frosty.

“Uhh, yeah, we, uh…”

“Oh, the foals these days, everything has to come as soon as possible. Oh dear, well, it all turned out okay this time, but be a bit more careful the next time around, you hear?” She said with a wink.

“I… Uh… yes, ma’am!” Frosty said with a thick blush.

Celestia sat in her throne like every day, spending her time between court hearings doing paperwork, when her work was suddenly interrupted by a letter appearing above her. A quick look over the seal revealed it to be one sent by her most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.

She smiled when she read her name. Celestia loved receiving letters from her student, not only because they gave her an excuse to make a pause, but also because she loved seeing her progress.

However, this letter was different. Its contents held secrets that she had thought she had banned long ago. The further she read, the more dread-filled her expression became. She had a suspicion before, but now that Twilight had sent her this report, there was no longer any doubt. This ‘Frosty’, as he was seemingly called, had delved into the forbidden arts of soul magic!

The letter slipped from her magic, as she momentarily felt dread overtake her senses. However, she quickly regained control over herself. After all, there was no time to be wasted! She had to do something! And do something, she would indeed.

“Guards! Get me a chariot to Ponyville this instant!”

Built in three months, destroyed in an hour

After Frosty and Scootaloo had their rather embarrassing encounter with Scootaloo’s aunts, Frosty was invited to stay for dinner. Originally he wanted to decline, but a weird feeling in the back of his head compelled him to accept. Of course, the ensuing conversation went down the path that one would want the least in such a situation.

“So, how did your… *ahem* first time feel?” Holiday asked.

Both, Scootaloo and Frosty went pale white and rosy in quick succession. “Auntie!” Scootaloo whined and covered her face.

“That’s, umm, well… yeah, uh...” Frosty stammered. “I-I don’t think that’s an appropriate topic…”

Lofty and Holiday laughed at that. “Oh dear, don’t be so embarrassed about it! You’ve finally found a coltfriend after all! There is nothing wrong with that!”

“That doesn’t make it an appropriate topic to talk about, though.” Frosty repeated.

“Argh, can we PLEASE talk about something else already?!” Scootaloo whined.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang.

“I’ve got it!” Scootaloo shouted a bit too eagerly, before rushing to the door and opening it. “Sweetie Belle! Apple Bloom! I thought your sisters didn’t allow you out!”

“Is Frosty here?” Sweetie Belle suddenly asked.

“Uh, yeah, he is.” Scootaloo answered.

“Frosty!” Both of them then shouted and ran past Scootaloo, who looked after her friends with confusion. “Girls? What’s going on?”

“Frosty, you’ve got to hide!” Sweetie Belle said.

“What? Why?” Frosty asked with a tilted head.

“It’s because—“ Apple Bloom started, however she was interrupted by another, far more forceful knock. Scootaloo, who still stood by the door, opened it again and recoiled upon doing so.

“Greetings, young filly.” A deep, gruff voice said kindly. “Do you perhaps know a certain ‘Frozen Blood’?”

All three fillies immediately went five degrees paler – which looked particularly interesting in Sweetie Belle’s case.

“Uh, uh, Frozen Blood? Umm, I, uh—“ Scootaloo stammered, but was interrupted.

“There’s no use in lying, young filly. We have valid info that he is hiding in this house.”

“I am hardly hiding, good sir. I am merely visiting my fillyfriend.” Frosty said, while going to the front door himself.

“Frosty, wait! They want you, Frosty! They’ve been searching everywhere for you!” Sweetie Belle cautioned.

“Well yes, I know. Else, they would hardly stand there and ask for me, wouldn’t they?”

“That’s not what she meant. She meant that th’ princess is here and that she has sent ‘em out t’search for ya!” Apple Bloom corrected.

‘Okay, this might actually be bad. I shouldn’t say that, though.’

“Oh come, Apple Bloom, you say that as if I was in mortal danger from it or something.” Frosty said.

“But Frosty, you know that she won’t like your, uhh, you know…” Apple Bloom trailed off.

“We can’t be certain about that just yet. What is certain is that the princess wants to see me and it would hardly be polite of me to not heed her call.”

With that said, Frosty stepped outside to the two very surprised looking guards.

“Good day, gentlecolts, I heard you were searching for me?” Frosty greeted.

“Uhh… are you Frozen Blood?” One of the guards asked.

“Yes, I am. Why, is anything amiss?”

“I, uhh… sorry, I just… after all the cautions we got, I expected somepony, who is more… intimidating. I definitely did not expect you to be a little colt, and a rather polite one at that.”

“Oh, don’t be fooled by outward appearances. I am much more capable than I might seem. Yes, I am actually capable of quite a few extraordinary feats! Things like getting sat on by one of the most popular mares around and having my own herd at such a humble age, just to name a few.” Frosty bragged jokingly.

“Yes, so it would seem…” The guardspony mumbled jealously.

“That’s enough chatter, private! We’ve been stalled long enough!” the other guard, likely a sergeant, ordered.

“Yes sir! Ahem, Frozen Blood, by order of her Highness, Princess Celestia, you are to accompany us to the marketplace!”

“The marketplace? Huh, a highly unusual choice for our first date, but I’ll take it.” Frosty joked, more to calm himself than anything else. This earned him a very disapproving glare from the sergeant. “Heheh, yeah, okay, no time for jokes… Umm, please, lead the way then, sir.”

The marketplace was unusually empty for a weekday, when they arrived. That was not because there were less ponies around, but because all of them had gathered around a wooden stage that now sat in the middle of the plaza and seemed to be the place where the sergeant was taking him.

The crowd opened a pathway for Frosty and the guards, who were escorting him from the front and the back. The CMC, meanwhile, tried to slip in as well, but the crowd closed the gap before they could, so they had to squeeze themselves through.

On the other side of the wall of ponies, Frosty found none other than the Princess herself, as well as the six Element Bearers standing on the stage and looking at him with varying gazes. From worried to shameful, to ashamed, to outright death glares. The Princess, however, wore a mask of pure neutrality.

“Frozen Blood, I presume?” she asked down to him.

“Indeed, your Highness.” Frosty answered.

“Do you know, why I have summoned you here?”

“No, I don’t. Though, seeing as this looks more like an arrest than a summon, I presume that I am in trouble for something?” Frosty calmly asked back.

Princess Celestia’s neutral gaze shifted into an angry glare at that. “You, Frozen Blood, have committed a heinous crime that I never would have thought to be committed by a colt as young as you. You have practiced the long-forbidden arts of soul magic!”

The crowd, as well as Fluttershy and Twilight gasped at that – although Fluttershy did so more because she got scared by the crowd.

“You have heard the charges put against you. How do you plead?” Celestia continued.

‘Damn… I could just lie, but Applejack would likely see through that… oh, what to do, what to do… Maybe I can spin this around, but it’s definitely gonna be risky...’

“I plead guilty.” Frosty said, eliciting another round of gasps, as well as a very confused expression from the princess.

“This is the first time that anypony has the audacity to not try to hide this crime before us. Tell me, young colt, what has brought you to openly admitting this?”

Frosty gave a serious look up at her. “Simple: Because after thousands of years spent in hiding, I think that finally, the time has come that at least some of the false accusations that are put against us shall be laid to rest.”

“How dare you?!” Twilight suddenly shouted. “The princess would never do something like making up false accusations!”

“That is true, I apologize for that.” Frosty apologized. “There are no false accusations against us to be found, simply because everything that one can find can be boiled down to ‘extremely dangerous, kill on sight’ and I imagine that this is not because of a lack of knowledge, but because of extreme censorship – something that the princess definitely had a hoof in.”

The crowd gasped again, this time looking back and forth between the princess and Frosty. Even the Element Bearers were now giving slightly doubtful gazes over to her, with the exception of Twilight, who was still glaring down at Frosty.

“I see, it was a mistake to allow this after all…” The princess said. “Your deception threatens to corrupt the minds of my beloved ponies, therefore you must be destroyed right now!”

She reared up and unleashed a mighty magic beam onto Frosty, as soon as she came back down. Frosty barely managed to erect a shield before the beam hit and he was thrust backwards.

The crowd looked on in amazement, as Frosty actually endured the princess’s attack. Unbeknownst to them, though, Frosty’s powers were being drained at an incredibly fast rate and if nothing happened, he would lose within only a few moments.

“WAIT!” Three fillies suddenly screamed, placing themselves in front of Frosty and thus making Celestia redirect her beam upwards to avoid hitting them.

“APPLE BLOOM?! What in tarnation did ya think yer doin’?! Ya could’ve been killed!!” Applejack shouted down to them.

“Frosty almost was!!” Apple Bloom shouted back, before turning to her coltfriend with the other two fillies. “Frosty, are you okay?”

Frosty was panting from over-exertion, but his powers weren’t completely drained just yet.

“Y-Yes, I’m fine. Thanks girls, that was a really close one.” He said to them with a thankful smile, before looking back at princess Celestia.

“Dear princess, is my own death really worth so much to you that you would kill this entire town for it?” Frosty asked seriously.

“That’s outrageous! The princess’s magic is highly precise! Nopony except you would’ve been harmed!” Twilight defended.

“I am not talking about the attack. I presume, since her highness is most likely the one that also destroyed my predecessors, she is well-aware of what happens when I die.” Frosty said.

“Of course! Another threat to Equestria will be destroyed just like all the others before!” Twilight shouted again.

“Could you please stop spouting propaganda like a speaker? I thought that you were a lot smarter than that.” Frosty retorted. “No, I mean that upon my death, everypony in my vicinity will die.”

Fearful murmurs erupted within the crowd and the Element Bearers exchanged worried looks.

“And now you are threatening everypony here?! You really are nothing more than a villain! I am ashamed of myself that I have taught you magic!” Twilight went on again.

“That’s not a threat!” Apple Bloom shouted back. “It’s… it’s… it’s a warning.” She said, quieting down. “When he dies, there’s this black stuff comin’ out from him that... ah dunno, eats everything that’s alive…”

“Wait a dang moment, Apple Bloom, you knew ‘bout this?!” Applejack asked angrily, to which Apple Bloom quietly nodded.

“So, wait, let me get this straight: When Frosty dies, we will all go with him. The princess knew that and just tried anyways?” Rainbow Dash summarized, giving a shocked look over to the princess.

Celestia stood still for a moment and then sighed, letting her head hang. “I admit that I made a mistake. I indeed did not know that this would happen. I deeply apologize for the danger I have put you in, my little ponies.”

‘Damn, nice dodge.’

“Seeing as the situation has changed, my verdict shall be adapted. Frozen Blood, you are still guilty of practicing the forbidden arts. However, since your immediate destruction would cause harm to my little ponies, you shall instead be banished from our lands. Should you ever dare to set foot into Equestria again, you shall be thrown into Tartarus for all eternity!” Princess Celestia declared.

“NOOOO! Please, don’t do that!!” the three fillies pleaded, but Frosty held them back.

“Girls, it’s alright. It is likely for the better if I go. Even if I wasn’t banished, now that everypony knows, I doubt that they will ever trust me again.” Frosty tried to calm them. His success in that was very limited.

They shared one last goodbye-hug, before they were forcefully separated by the guards and Frosty was led to the town’s edge, from where he made his way towards the Everfree. On the edge of the forest, he turned around one last time to get a look at the town. He thought for a moment, about what he was leaving behind and about how his plans had to be drastically rewritten now.

He was just about to turn around, when he saw three small dots growing bigger in the distance. As they came closer, he could make out three distinct voices shouting: “Frosty! Wait!” The CMC reached him a few moments later, completely out of breath and their faces stained with sweat and tears.

“Girls? What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be with your sisters?” Frosty asked in surprise.

“Pff, no. Ah don’ want anything to do with these traitors!” Apple Bloom declared.

“Woah woah woah, wait a moment. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that they’re traitors, they just… they were just misguided.” Frosty said.

“But they were so mean! They banished you only because they don’t understand what you are! Not to mention all the things you did since you came here! That was just unfair!” Sweetie Belle lamented.

“Yes, I know, but—“ Frosty started, but Scootaloo cut him off.

“No buts. Frosty, believe us, we have thought about this and we know what this decision means. Back there, we saw how everypony ganged up on you. Even we could see that this game was rigged from the start and yet… we saw that you could stand up even to the princess herself, but you didn’t try to escape - you didn’t even try to hurt anypony. Princess Celestia, however, tried to blast you after only a few seconds of talking. Let me tell you, Frosty, after what we saw back there, we can safely say that we are done with them.” Scootaloo declared.

“Also… you are our coltfriend. You are everything we ever wanted and everything we would ever need and then even more than that! Why would we want to be anywhere else?” She added.

“Wow… th-thank’s girls, I…”

A single, genuine tear rolled down Frosty’s cheek. The fillies smiled at him when they saw this and he quickly turned away to wipe it off. After he had done so, he remained with his back to them and smiled into the forest, before raising a hoof and declaring: “Well then: Onwards to new adventures!”

“Onwards to new adventures!” The CMC mimicked him, before the group vanished into the foliage and marched into a new chapter of their lives.

Author's Note

Well... shit. That didn't go well at all, didn't it? But I'm sure that Frosty already has all kinds of ideas on what to do next! At least, he certainly knows how to survive in the Everfree... right?

A new life ahead

Frosty, the CMC, as well as Pharynx and the Zombie-Commander were walking through the Everfree forest, in search of a place to stay. The poor girls almost died of shock, when they saw the Changelings again, but Frosty managed to calm them down. However, since the guard knew the cave and would likely be searching for him there, if they were searching at all, Frosty decided that it would be better to move deeper into the forest.

That was easier said than done, seeing as none of them ever ventured very far into it before and thus had to turn around multiple times because the path was blocked.

“Frosty, I am hungry!” Sweetie Belle whined and the other two joined in: “Me too!”

Frosty stopped his march at that and turned around to them with an understanding smile. “That’s okay. We can take a little rest here. Good thing the changelings brought quite a few supplies, so we won’t be running out any time soon.”

“It is only logical that our hosts brought extended supplies if they were planning on capturing hostages from the beginning, my lord.” Pharynx commented.

“Yes, I was aware. No need to bring up bad memories.” Frosty chastised.

Pharynx immediately bowed and apologized. “I beg your forgiveness, my lord. I failed to remember what our hosts did to your slaves.”

“For the last time, they are my herdmates, not my slaves!” Frosty chastised again, a bit angrier this time.

“Why not? I mean, sometimes when Rarity brings a stallion she really likes, I hear her call herself a slave… and then I usually hear the bed creaking, whatever that means.” Sweetie Belle commented.

“Yeah, well, that’s not really—wait a second, what?!” Frosty half-screamed, but before Sweetie could say any more, they heard another voice come from the bushes behind them.

“I hear a voice I haven’t heard far too long.” Zecora said, as she stepped from the bushes. “Good day my friend. I hope you are healthy and strong.”

Pharynx and the Zombie-Commander immediately went into combat-mode, but Frosty signalled them to stand down.

“Zecora. It is… quite surprising to meet you here.” Frosty greeted coldly.

“That is quite a cold way to greet a friend… although, to not know why, I cannot pretend.” Zecora said sadly.

“If you know why, I am actually quite surprised that you haven’t fled yet.” Frosty commented.

“I do not know why such reaction should be shown, but you are right in that the details remain unknown. I have been told you’re misguided and have been punished in a way. However, when I inquired further, they refused to say.” Zecora clarified.

“Oh really? Well, it might be better that way anyways. I advise you to stay out of this, or you might end up losing all of your progress in befriending Ponyville.” Frosty told her.

“Why you act so gravely, I cannot see. I just want to help you like have helped me!” Zecora said back.

“That would drag you down as well, you know? And I bet they won’t let you off the hook as easily as they did with us.” Frosty cautioned.

“I doubt that it will bring me the wrath of the sun, but still I must ask: Frosty, what have you done?”

Frosty hesitated with the answer. Partly because he actually didn`t want Zecora to get targeted because of him and partly because he feared that she might turn on him if he did.

“Frosty?” Applebloom poked him from the side. “Why ain’t ya tellin’ her? Ah mean, she’s yer friend ‘n all, right? And friends tell their problems t’ each other!”

“Maybe, but this is… different.” Frosty tried to evade.

“How? If anythin’, ah’d say that this’s a problem that ya can’t solve without tellin’ her!”

Frosty gave a tired look over to Applebloom, before breathing in deeply and sighing. “I suppose… but before I tell you, I must ask you to promise to not think any less of me afterwards.”

“I promise, after you tell me, no matter how deranged, my view of you shall not be changed.” Zecora promised.

“Good. Well… the crime that I’ve commited is that… I’m a necromancer.” Frosty said slowly.

Zecora showed no reaction at first, but slowly the corners of her mouth crept upwards, until she suddenly burst out in laughter.

“Oh dear is that really it? Excuse me, but sure this isn’t all that you did?” Zecora asked, unbelieving of the first answer.

“Uhhh… yes, it is?” Frosty said, unsure of how to interpret Zecora’s reaction.

“I can hardly imagine that crime to be really that grand. After all, Soul magic is quite common in my homeland!”

Frosty gave her a mixed look of shock and concern. “Zecora, I advise you to never, EVER, tell anypony about this. It may be common in Zebrica or wherever you come from. Here in Equestria, however, it is a capital crime.” Frosty cautioned. “Furthermore, Celestia seems to be quite hell-bent on killing all necromancers she encounters. The only reason I am still alive is that I managed to tell the citizens of Ponyville what happens to them if I am killed, which forced her to change her plans.”

“I cannot believe she would commit such a sin! She must have known she would kill her own kin!”

“Oh, believe me, literally the first action she took in this whole ‘trial’ she had set up was to blast me with the power of the sun. The only reason I managed to endure was because I had… quite the feast during the whole foalnapping-incident. She claimed that she didn’t know in the end, but that sounded a lot like a lie to me…” Frosty assured.

“It’s not like you would believe her, even if she was saying the truth anyways.” Scootaloo commented.

“Maybe, but I don’t think anypony can blame me for that.”

While Frosty and Scootaloo lightened their moods, Zecora seemed to be frozen still. Her eyes were wide and her mouth hung open in an expression of utter shock.

“That’s horrible news!” She the suddenly awoke again. “If that’s really true then that could mean war!”

Frosty and his companions stood still for a moment, awaiting more to come since there was no rhyme. Zecora noticed that mistake and forced herself to calm down.

“I am very sorry, but this is so grave a matter, when I started talking my words just seemed to scatter.” She apologized.

“Understandable. It isn’t a nice thought to be had, not to mention the implications it brings. I assume I don`t need to say, how much you’re putting yourself in danger just by talking to us.” Frosty pointed out.

“And yet, no matter what they would do, I am still very willing to help you.” Zecora said firmly.

“… Really?”

“Yes, for when you helped me you also risked termination. Yet, your help was what finally brought me salvation. Even if this might result in my ban, I will still try and do what I can.” Zecora affirmed. “The first thing to do would be to find a place to stay. Afterward we can return to what is left to say.”

“Yeah, shelter is a good call. We had a cave, but the guard knows about that one and I was afraid that they might come knocking on our door one day. Also it had multiple entrances and thus wasn’t really and ideal place to defend or to hide in.” Frosty said.

“If defence is a concern then I might have an idea and the place I have in mind might actually be near.”

“Okay. Lead the way then. Nopony knows this forest as much as you do, after all! Oh yeah and… thank you, Zecora. Really, your help means a lot to me.” Frosty thanked.

“There is no need to thank for you, as helping each other is what friends do.” Zecora said, as she led the party further into the forest.

After an hour of walking, they reached a mountainous region, in which Zecora led them to a U-shaped indent in the rock wall. It lay just on the edge of a larger mountain and was covered by a line of trees that separated the mountain and the forest from each other.

“As a hiding place, I hope this is enough, although without a home, living here will be rough.” Zecora said when they reached the new hideout.

“That ain’t a problem! Ah can build a house fer us!” Applebloom immediately said.

“Really? Wow, that would be quite impressive if you could.” Frosty commented, making Applebloom blush slightly.

“Yeah, that ain’t a problem… although, ah’d need help, ‘cuz ahm just a filly an’ ah can’t really do the heavy liftin’ and such.” She admitted sheepishly.

“That’s alright. Pharynx and the Zombie will assist you.” Frosty said, signalling to Pharynx and the Zombie that this was an order.

“Hey, I wanna help too!” Scootaloo chimed in.

“Me too!” Sweetie Belle agreed.

“It would seem you will be busy for the time to be. I shall take my leave, but I look forward to the next time we see. I wish all the good luck to you, I just wished there was more that I could do…”

“Oh, but there is!” Frosty said. “In all honesty, it has been plaguing my mind since you brought us here. Truth be told, the changeling supplies might be plentiful, but they still aren’t infinite, so… would you mind helping us get some food?” He asked.

“Oh, I would be delighted to give you supply! It would give me good reason to regularly stop by!” Zecora said delightedly.

“… I actually thought about something like teaching us herb lore and such, but if you’re really willing to do that then that would be even better.”

“Fear no more about this basic need, for I shall return and I will bring something to eat!” Zecora declared half-jokingly, before waving goodbye one last time and vanishing into the forest.

When Zecora was gone, the others immediately went to work and, under the direction of Applebloom, they laid the foundations of what was to soon become their new house…

Author's Note

New base in the Forest. Let's see how long it lasts :D

The Menace

The evening after Frosty was banned from equestrian soil, Applejack found herself hopping nervously from hoof to hoof. She hadn’t even knocked yet, as she was still trying to gather, what she even wanted to say when Twilight would answer. However, fate seemed to be very impatient, as suddenly, a purple baby dragon opened the door, seemingly about to go out.

“WAAAH!” Spike screamed, as he saw her. “Oh – oh, euh hi Applejack. You euh… you totally didn’t scare me or anythin’.” He tried to play it cool, but failed miserably.

“Uhh, yeah, hi Spike. Is Twilight home?” Applejack asked.

“Oh, yeah, sure, wait a sec.” Spike said, before turning around and shouting into the treehouse: “Twilight! Applejack wants to see you!”

“What, right now? Uh, okay, tell her to wait, please, I’m coming down in a few moments!” Twilight called back down.

“There. Now, if you’d excuse me, Applejack: I’m going to Rarity’s.”

“Oh really? Wanna pay her a surprise visit or what?”

“Heh, no. Rarity asked me to come by this evening, because apparently she’s had a ‘problem’ for a few nights now and she thinks that only I can solve it.” Spike said, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Yeah… sure. I guess… have fun then?” Applejack said insecurely.

“Sure thing, you too!” Spike replied, ignoring or not noticing Applejack’s behaviour and walking off towards Rarity’s.

“Hi, Applejack!” Twilight greeted from inside, as soon as Spike had left. “Spike said you wanted to talk to me?”

“Y-yeah, ah did… can we talk inside? This is gonna be… personal, ya know?”

“Sure, come in!” Twilight welcomed, stepping aside to let her friend in. Both took a seat in one of the reading areas and then, they started to talk. At least, that was the plan. However, Applejack still seemed quite nervous about what she wanted to say, which was very uncharacteristic of the mare.

“Applejack? Is everything alright?” Twilight asked in concern.

“Ah, sugarcube, ya know… No, actually. Ya see ah still don’t know, how ah’m gonna tell ya this, or even where t’ start…”

“How about you start where you first noticed the problem?” Twilight offered.

“That’s exactly it... it was yesterday, during that whole… Frosty-thing.”

This very vague description got Twilight’s full attention. “You mean during the trial? Oh no, please don’t tell me you saw him do something, that would be very bad.”

“No, no, it’s not ‘bout Frosty… it’s about the princess. Ya see, Twi… Ah didn’t say anythin’ back then, but when she said she didn’t know ‘bout Frosty’s death-thing, she… she was lyin’.”

“WHAT?!” Twilight exclaimed. “You can’t be serious, Applejack! The princess would never lie about something like that! Oh, I know, Frosty- no, Frozen Blood must’ve corrupted you too!”

“Ah dun’ know, Twi. It didn’t feel like anythin’ was wrong an’ ah don’t feel any different than normal.” Applejack assessed uncertainly.

“If it were that easy to spot a necromancer’s influence then nopony would ever fall for them, Applejack. In fact, I think I will prepare a magic scan for you right now.” Twilight pointed out.

“Maybe, but… ain’t ya even considering the possibility that th’ princess was lyin’?”

Twilight’s face dropped into a very serious and accusing look. “I’m going to pretend that I didn’t hear that. How could you even think something like that, Applejack? Even just suggesting something like that borders on heresy! You know what, I think I should forego that scan and go straight for the cleansing ritual. Come back tomorrow this same time and, if you can, bring Rainbow and Rarity as well, okay?”

“Okay Twi… not that you’re listenin’ anyways.” Applejack mumbled, before hopping from her chair and walking towards the door.

“Good. See you tomorrow then.” Twilight said, her demeanor having suddenly changed back to her regular self.

“Uh, yeah, see you tomorrow…” Applejack dismissed, leaving the Library.

Outside, Applejack found herself yet again face to face with the young drake, only with the roles reversed this time around.

“Oh, hey Spike. So, how did your evening with Rarity go?” Applejack asked.

“Huh, what? Oh, yeah, uhh… She, uhh, her Manedryer broke a few days ago and when she doesn’t dry her mane before sleeping, she gets this really bad case of bedhead, so she asked me to help dry her hair with my flame.” Spike told her, becoming quieter with each word he spoke, until he only barely mumbled loud enough to be heard.

“Ah, seems like ah’m not the only one who got disappointed t’day, huh?” Applejack noted.

“Yeah… wait, uh, no! No, I-I totally never thought she needed anything else, really! I, uh… I’m not… disappointed.”

“Yeah, sure ya ain’t… an’ ah suppose ah shouldn’t be either.” Applejack said to herself, before going back to her home and tried to get some rest.

That night, Applejack didn’t sleep.

In the Royal Palace, Princess Celestia was sitting on her dinnertable, which doubled as her sister’s breakfast. However, her intention wasn’t to eat.

“Sister, are you sure this isn’t a misjudgement? Art thou certain that the necromancers have returned?” Luna asked incredulously after her sister had told her the news.

“Yes, Luna, I am certain. No normal pony could hold out for so long against the whole power of my sun, not to mention that he had admitted to be one himself.” Celestia confirmed.

“A young colt who claims to be a necromancer? Not the most concerning admission we have ever heard. Though, if he really held out against thy sun then he really can’t be a normal colt.”

“Quite indeed. For now, I have banished him from our lands, but I doubt that this will keep him away for long, if he ever even left. As you know, the tracking spell only works on living beings. That’s why I have to ask a favour of you: could you please distribute these to the guard and have them put up in every major City?”

Celestia levitated a stack of papers over to her sister.

“Wanted-posters? I thought these went out of fashion a few hundred years ag---oooo dear, sister, that is quite a large sum, don’t you think?! Ten million bits for the colt himself and one million for every clue that leads to his capture?!” Luna exclaimed. “You are aware that this will undoubtedly spawn quite a few false reports, right?”

“Yes I am aware. However, that doesn’t matter to me. I hate to say it, but the pacifism that I have pursued sadly greatly weakened the overall strength of our ponies. I doubt that anypony will bring any true evidence or even Frozen Blood himself. I merely want to make his face known to limit his options. Maybe this will give us enough time to prepare another plan to fully get rid of him.”

“Ah, I see. Then, I shall distribute these to our ponies and hope with you that we can eliminate this threat.” Luna said, before turning around and going to the Throne Room to start night court.

Frosty was hiding in an alley close to the south gate of Canterlot. He had tried to slip in with the regular morning traffic, but his disguise didn’t hold.

He had actually made it quite far. He managed to remain undetected during the train ride and wasn’t noticed when he left the train either. However, when he left the station, he came to notice that Canterlot seemed to be quite different from what he remembered from the series and the fanfictions. In most depictions, the station was inside the city’s walls, however, this Canterlot’s station was outside.

That was a lesser concern for him, however, as another, much bigger concern came up only moments after. It turns out that Princess Celestia reacted far quicker than originally thought. Posters of his face were plastered all over Canterlot and the guards were passively scanning everypony around them for disguises.

“Alright, I need a new plan.” Frosty told himself, just as another guard patrol passed by his alley – luckily without looking in.

“My original plan to try and find sympathizers among the ponies of Canterlot has fallen apart, so let’s see… The general populace is out of the question, as well as the military and the government, so what remains would be…”

Just as he had that thought, he heard hoofsteps behind him, which got increasingly rapid until he barely evaded a strike from behind.

“Heh, quick little bastard. Say, young colt, where are your parents? Are you lost? I can bring you home if you want… for a few bits, that is.” The young mare said, however her demeanor changed rapidly as she noticed, who she had just attacked. “Oh… oh no, Fr-Frozen B-Blood…” She wheezed, slumping down to her rump and sliding backwards, against a wall.

Frosty meanwhile was slowly following her, with a mad smile on his face. It had formed when his problem basically solved itself with her appearance and the empowering feeling he got from her fear made it stay.

“That is quite right, miss. I am Frozen Blood, the necromancer that even held to the princess’s sun. Oh, but don’t be afraid, I’m not here to hurt you… yet.”

The mare tensed up and started to hyperventilate, while Frosty was still closing the distance.

“You know, I’ve found myself faced with a problem and I think you can help me solve it. You see: everypony knows my name and face, which is quite a hindrance for me if I want to gain some… ‘allies’. However, I am sure nopony would care if I were to turn some criminals, right? Now tell me, where can I find your gang leader?” He asked in a threatening tone, pressing his own face into the mare`s.

“G-Gang leader? I-I don’t know what you mean, I-I’m not in a gang! I—“ A strong slap flew over the mare’s face.

“Don’t bother lying to me. I can see directly into your soul and I know when you are lying. Now tell me where your leader is and I might just let you live after this.”

“W-Wait, you mean if I d-don’t tell you then you’ll… k-kill me?” The mare asked fearfully.

“You are a smart girl, now spill it or I will decorate this alley with your insides!”

The mare let out a panicked squeal, before hurriedly giving an answer. “I-I don’t know where he lives or anything, b-but I know that you can find him every moonday in a club called the ‘Frilly Filly’! There I told you, now pleeeeaaase, don’t kill me.” The mare pleaded miserably and, to her great surprise and relief, Frosty seemingly obeyed.

“Very well. See? This wasn’t so hard, now was it?”

Frosty stepped back from the mare, allowing her to get up again and leave… however, just when she had made a few steps, she felt herself being knocked over onto her back and her legs pinned to the ground.

“W-What?! B-But you said you’d let me go!”

“No, I didn’t. I said, I would let you live. I never said I would let you go.” Frosty reminded her. “You see, a big drawback of my powers is that every time I harm a mare, I get so incredibly… horny.”

Warning: Porn Section
Yadda yadda, 18+, you know the drill, let’s get to the action!

A big, black lance of a horsecock appeared beneath the light gray of Frosty’s coat. It bobbed proudly up and down as Frosty slowly advanced on his powerless prey, girthy enough to put even an adult to shame and hard enough to pierce through steel.

The mare tried to struggle against her invisible shackles, to somehow get away from her assailant, but it was no use. He had already reached her and slammed his forehooves down onto hers. His vile rapestick was poking against her precious virginity one short time, before it was slammed all the way inside in one go.

She drew in a sharp breath as her pussy was penetrated for the first time. The pain of having such a gargantuan beast shoved into such a tiny space was immeasurable, but not nearly as strong as the psychological pain that came with it.

“Help! Pleeeaaase, anypony help me!!!” She cried out, but nopony would hear.

“Fool, did you really think I hadn’t predicted that? Of course I’ve sealed us off with a noise barrier!” Frosty said. “But I’ve got to say, your cries are really turning me on!”

He increased his pace, slamming his monstrous dong right into the mare’s cervix over and over again. Each time he hit, her breath hitched and her stomach bulged.

“Aaah! Please stop! Pleease! I dint wanndo do dis, ah swear! ah just wanned do survivv!” She slurred, the pain making it hard for her to speak.

“Oh you will, don’t worry about that. However, it will turn out a bit differently than you thought it would.” Frosty said, before kissing the mare beneath him.

His tongue entered her muzzle, dancing around the mare’s teeth and scouting out the entirety of her mouth. She, in turn, pulled back her tongue as far as she could and tried to avoid contact as much as possible. She even tried to bite down on his tongue, but she found that her own teeth were held just like her legs were.

Then, she felt something sort of ‘trickle’ into her mind. It was subtle at first, but the effects of it became increasingly more noticeable. The first thing was that she lost control of her tongue. All of a sudden, it just came forward and met Frosty’s in her mouth, exchanging spit like in an actual, passionate kiss.

Next were her legs. At first, she noticed, how they weren’t struggling anymore and then, how he hind legs slowly liftend themselves to wrap around the colt’s back. When they were up, he let go of her forelegs, so they could join as well.

‘N-Noooo! What’s going on?!I-I can’t control my body anymore!’

Last came her voice. Instead of grunting and squealing in pain, she started to moan in pleasure every time he thrusted.

‘No, that isn’t me! THIS ISN’T ME!! What is going on?!’

Frosty pulled back from the kiss, but didn’t stop his thrusting. With her mouth now freed, the muffled moans from earlier now came out fully with her whole voice put into them.

“Well well, seems like you’ve finally come to enjoy this as well.” Frosty said.

“Yes, master~, I am very happy that master chose me! Please, use me as your cocksleeve my master! Let me be your sex slave!” She pleaded.

‘W-what?! What am I saying?! No! NOO! That isn’t me!!’ The mare though, but she had long lost all control, so there was nothing that she could do.

“Sex slave? Oh no, you’re not going to be my slave. I’m going to make you my cumdumpser. I will fill you to the brim with my sperm!”

‘Noo, No, he can’t! I’m in season! I’m gonna get pregnant!!’

“Yes, master, please fill my womb with your seed! Please, I want to bear master’s foal!” The mare pleaded.

“Oh really, well then I will fulfil your wish! Watch out, here it comes!”

“YEEEEES! AAH!”

‘NOOOOOOO!’

Hot sperm shot through Frosty’s cock directly into the mare’s womb, quickly filling it completely with white, hot semen. However, Frosty wasn’t nearly done, so he crammed more and more into her womb. Her belly bloated as if she was already about to give birth and when the pressure continued to increase, his sperm even pressed past his cock and spilled out.

Finally, after the ground beneath them was covered in a white blanket did Frosty pull out, causing a waterfall of cum to burst from the mare’s ravaged cunt. Her legs fell to the ground and her head rolled to the side, with her tongue sticking out.

Porn Section End

Frosty looked at the barely conscious servant he had just created. A few trickles of his ‘gift’ were still spilling out from her, but most of the original flood had subsided.

“Well then, now that that’s been dealt with, I will be heading for this ‘Frilly Filly’ club. Congrats, you will likely bear my foal. Raise it well, you hear?”

“Y-Yes, I will raise master’s foal~. <3”

Author's Note

Yes, I know I said that there were no further rape scenes planned, but... that's exactly it: there were no further scenes planned. This one just... sorta happened while writing.

Also: Commodus pt 2

A brief Return

Frosty walked down the same alley he came from, away from the nightclub he had originally been heading to. Actually, he was even there, but doing so during daytime has not yielded any significant results. Rather, it brought up another problem.

The ‘Frilly Filly’ nightclub had a rather strict dresscode for some reason and likely also a bouncer – which club doesn`t? The bouncer was the bigger problem, since it was unlikely that he would let a wanted criminal get past without raising a fuss, so other methods would need to be employed. A disguise for example.

Frosty headed back to the forest on hoof, since the train station was on complete lockdown since his arrival. Luckily that meant that they had taken a few guards off the gates, so he could easily slip through.

Getting out of Canterlot was the easy part though, as without the train, he had to walk back to their hideout in the Everfree, which took him one and a half days, making his one-day-trip suddenly become a two-and-a-half-day trip.

“FROSTY!!!” The three girls screamed happily, as they saw Frosty finally return.

“Welcome back, my master. I hope you had a pleasant trip?” Pharynx greeted.

“If you ignore that I had to walk back here because I got spotted and couldn’t use the trains, then yes, I actually had a very nice trip.” Frosty answered.

“You made us worry a lot, though.” Sweetie said. “I mean, you said you just wanted to have a look at the things in Canterlot and then, you were suddenly gone for three days! We thought… we thought… that maybe you died…”

“I tried to calm them down and told them that I could still clearly feel your presence, however they wouldn’t listen. They kept insisting that I might be feeling it wrong or something – a surprisingly pessimistical standpoint for three normally cheerful young fillies.” Pharynx stated.

“Is that so? You three found my death really more likely than my survival? Heh, well thanks for your trust.” Frosty said ironically.

“S-sorry, Frosty. It’s jus’ that… we feel helpless ‘n all. Like, we can’t help ya at all with whatever yer doin’ and when you were gone, we knew we couldn’t do anythin’ but wait and… and… and…”

Tears were forming on the edge of Applebloom’s eyes as she stuttered, so Frosty quickly swooped in and hugged her tightly.

“There there, Applebloom. There’s no need to be afraid anymore. I’m here, okay? You know I’d never allow myself to leave you three alone.” He said soothingly. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo had also joined in the hug and were now shedding a few tears themselves.

“Although I have to admit that this was rather inconvenient, but sadly I had no other choice. The train station was completely locked down and I could only barely slip out on hoof.”

“So they found a way to counter your Soul Magic?” Pharynx asked.

“Not that I know. I created another servant in there, so no, I don’t think so.”

“Oh, so there was another reason why you didn’t just teleport to me?” Pharynx asked further.

“… come again?” Frosty responded.

“Master, excuse me if I may sound disrespectful, but do you know that you can freely teleport between your pawns without expending any soul energy?” Pharynx asked carefully.

“… Well, that’s good to know. Would’ve been better if I had known that a bit earlier though.” Frosty said.

“I am very sorry, my master. I should’ve expected you to not know since you have no connection to the expanse.” Pharynx apologized, giving Frosty a bow so deep that his muzzle was digging into the ground.

“Ah, doesn’t matter. Not that we can change the past. You can tell me how to do that teleport-thing, though.”

“As far as I can gather from the expanse, you would only need to concentrate on the pawn you wish to get to and activate a little bit of soul magic.” Pharynx explained.

“But didn’t you say I wouldn’t expend any energy?” Frosty pointed out.

“Oh, you won’t. The soul energy is just needed to form a connection, it isn’t expended.” Pharynx corrected.

“Ah. Well then, I suppose I just have to do it like th—“ Frosty started, before he suddenly popped up beside Pharynx. “—is?”

“Exactly, my lord. It seems you learn rather quickly.” Pharynx commented.

“Indeed. This ability will be very useful for my next trip to Canterlot.” Frosty said.

“No.” Sweetie Belle said firmly.

“No? I don’t know how you would know that, but why do you think so?” Frosty asked.

“I mean no, you aren’t going on another trip to Canterlot.” Sweetie Belle clarified.

Frosty was slightly taken aback by Sweetie’s sternness. “What? Why not?”

“Because we are afraid for you, Frosty!” Scootaloo said. “What if you really don’t come back this time? We just… we just feel so alone without you.”

“But Scoots, you know I have to go if I ever want us to be completely safe.” Frosty said back.

“I know but… at least let us come with you!” Scootaloo blurted out.

“What? No, I can`t do that.”

“Why? Is it because we would only be a hindrance? Is it that? Well sorry that we are so useless to you, we just want to help, you know?” Scoot says dejectedly.

“No, Scoots, it’s not that you’re a hindrance, it’s just that—“ Frosty said, but was cut off.

“Then there would be no reason to leave us here! Please Frosty, just this once!” Sweetie whined, before all three of them gave Frosty a taste of their all mighty puppy eyes.

Frosty tried to withstand their power, but ultimately, he was overwhelmed and gave in.

“Okay okay, I get it. I’ll take you with me on my next trip.”

The three fillies cheered together and wrapped Frosty in a hug yet again.

“Well, at least I won’t be all that suspicious looking, with you three in tow, I hope. That still leaves me with the problem that I need a disguise though.” Frosty thought out loud.

“How about the dresses that sis made?” Sweetie offered.

“Yeah, she made one for each of us and don’t ya think ah dun’ know ‘bout yer suit, Frosty. Ya look mighty fine in it.” Applebloom beamed up at him.

“… Okay, that’s good to know. Well, it would seem I’m going back to Ponyville tonight…”

Applejack sat alone at the kitchen table and drew circles with her hoof. Lately, she had been eating dinner alone, as Granny Smith and Big Mac usually went to bed far earlier than her, now that Applebloom and Frosty were gone. That wasn’t because of the additional workload though – she just couldn’t bear walking past their rooms while her brain was still working properly, so she worked herself almost unconscious every day before eating and going to bed.

This time, however, things were different. Even though she did her best to expend as much energy as she could, much to her dismay her body seemed to adjust itself to the workload and became more enduring, so now there was nothing else left for her than to wait until she became sleepy from the boredom.

Sadly, when the mind is left unoccupied it tends to wander through the few things that are currently worrying you the most and with Applejack, that was her little sister. She wasn’t mad at her for running away, nor was she mad at her friends for taking her with them. She even felt gratitude towards Frosty because she knew that he would never allow them to be harmed.

Frosty… she felt guilty for what happened to him. If she had just opened her muzzle when she had to! She could have prevented this from happening! She could have prevented Rainbow and Rarity from crashing so badly! But now…. Now they wouldn’t even look at her or anypony else. They just go about their business every day with the same monotone voice and the same empty expression. Applejack couldn’t blame either of them - she would’ve probably become the same if she didn’t already have some involuntary training in coping with losses through her deceased parents.

Suddenly, she was ripped out of her melancholy by some noise upstairs. At first, she didn’t think much about it, but when it didn`t stop, she shouted up: “Mac, what’cha doin’ up there? It sounds like y’all’re tryin t’ catch a piglet with yer tail!”

“What’cha shouin’ for, sis? Ah’m right here.” Big Mac suddenly said from the front door and Applejack remembered that he was out late tonight.

“Then… what’s makin’ that noise?” She asked. They both stared at each other for a moment, before they sprinted upstairs and stopped in front of Frosty’s old room. The noise had quieted down by now, only barely audible through the door.

Applejack slowly and carefully opened the door and looked through the room. At first, she saw nothing out of the ordinary, but as she slowly opened the door further, she spotted something rummaging through Frosty’s closet. She was just about to shout at the intruder, when he leaned back and held up a black suit in his magic.

“Frosty?!” Applejack gasped, revealing her presence to the young colt.

He slammed the closet shut, which revealed three small dresses lying by his side on the ground, which he then took up in his magic together with his suit, while backing up towards the window.

“Frosty, please wait, Ah don’t wanna harm ya!” Applejack pleaded.

“I know.” Frosty said flatly. “My ‘alive’ bounty is probably a lot higher, isn`t it?”

“Bounty? W-wait, what do ya mean? Ah ain’t no bounty hunter or anythin’, Ah just want t’ talk!”

“Oh yeah? Well, I don’t. What use would it be? In the end, you would just try to capture me and have Celestia execute me.” Frosty accused.

“What?! No! Ya know that ain’t true!” Applejack argued, making a few steps towards her adopted son. “Please, Frosty! Ah just wanna help ya! Maybe we can—“

She was interrupted, when Frosty suddenly kicked her into the face with an impossible amount of force for such a young colt. She got knocked back a few meters and slammed into her brother, who was luckily sturdy enough to stop her flight without getting injured himself.

Applejack shook her head, which made her snout shift in a way that didn’t feel natural and she could feel and taste blood that was running from her nose down onto her lips. Yet, her only thoughts were that she wanted to apologize to Frosty and moreso, wanted Frosty to forgive her, so when she saw him climb out of the window, she panicked and darted up again, just as he jumped down.

“Frosty! Frosty, please wait!” She pleaded, but when she reached the window herself, Frosty was no longer to be seen.

“Frosty! Frosty please! Ah just… Ah’m sorry Frosty! Please… please, Frosty, ah’m sorry…” She shouted out of the window, but her shouting soon became crying, as she noticed the hopelessness of her tries and so, when Big Mac came to her side to soothe her, she buried her bleeding muzzle in his chest and cried miserably.

As soon as he hit the ground, Frosty darted across the yard and into some nearby bushes, where his pure white coat couldn’t reflect as much of the moon’s light.

“Frosty! Frosty please! Ah just… Ah’m sorry Frosty! Please… please, Frosty, ah’m sorry…” He heard Applejack cry and now that he could drop his act, he showed some remorse himself. His ears drooped back and a few tears welled up in his eyes.

“I’m sorry as well, Applejack. Really, I am and I want to forgive you, I just can’t… not yet at least. If I were to forgive you now, I’m certain that you would just be pushed to my side of the problem… and I’m not certain if you would survive that.”

He wiped the tears from his eyes and smiled bravely towards the window he just jumped through.

“But don’t worry, Applejack. As long as I live, I will not allow any harm to come to either of my girls, that`s a promise. So, this is farewell… mom.”

He said, the last part spoken more as an honorary title than out of love, but still a sign of his goodwill towards the mare. With a last look over his shoulder, Frosty summoned some Soul Energy into his horn and vanished together with the clothes he had taken with him.

Author's Note

You've all been waiting for it and now it's almost there! The chapter, where Frosty went into a bar! (Reference to joke completely intended). Let's see how that will go! but only in the next chapter, see ya then! :twilightsmile:

Crashing the Party

It was a calm Monday night in Canterlot. Very few ponies were still out – at least very few that did so with good intentions. Among those few ponies were four foals, three fillies and one colt, who were all dressed like the offspring of high nobilitiy.

“Why do I have to wear this again?” Scootaloo whined for the umpteenth time.

“Don’t be such a baby, Scoots! I find my dress absolutely marvellous.” Sweetie Belle said, dancing around her friend.

“Yer becomin’ more and more like yer sister, Sweetie.” Applebloom noted. “Don’t cha worry, Scoots, we’re in this t’gether.” She held out a hoof to Scootaloo, which she then bumped with her own.

“I don’t know why you’re hating these dresses so much. I think they look pretty good.” Frosty commented.

“Oh... r-really? Okay, uhm cool… yeah, uh, I don’t really think they’re that bad either.” Scootaloo said, flushing a bit and looking away.

“…Wow, ya really changed a lot since we b’came Frosty’s marefriends.” Applebloom pointed out.

“W-What? No, I didn’t!” Scootaloo immediately shot back.

“Ya did.”

“Did not!”

“Did yes!”

“Did not!”

“Did—“

“GIRLS!” Frosty interrupted them. “I know that teasing each other is fun, but we sadly don’t have time for that right now. We’re almost there.”

A few meters further down the road, one could see a building that sat a bit secluded with a few flashing lights on it and a bouncer in front. The building itself looked like it was a noble estate, squeezed onto a commercial plot – which, in essence, it was. A house, where members of the high class could meet and enjoy a little… fun time. That was also the reason why there was no queue. Most if not all of the visitors came in through the VIP entrance and those few that didn’t probably didn’t hold up to the club’s standards anyways.

Sadly, neither of the four had a VIP-pass, so they too had to try their luck at the normal entrance. They walked up in front of the bouncer, clinging tightly to one another to make him think that Frosty was just some rich playcolt and would hopefully let them through.

“Good evening. I’m Fair Count, son of Safe Count. You surely know who that is.”

The bouncer looked down to them with a doubtful look.

“Yes, I know who that is. In fact, I know very well who that is. Well enough to know that he doesn’t have a son in your age. Now shoo off, kiddo. This club isn’t anything for you anyways."

“Oh, yeah, well, you see… he doesn’t really talk about me. Says that I’m–“

“You can stop right there. I just said that I know you aren’t his son and you know why that is? I am his son.” The bouncer claimed.

“What? Why does the son of somepony who is so well off work as a bouncer?” Frosty asked sceptically.

“Simple: so that colts like you don’t annoy him. Now for the last time: buck off or I’ll stop being nice and kick you across the street!” the bouncer threatened.

Frosty looked over his shoulder to the fillies. “Well girls, I tried. It would seem that we don’t get in this way.”

“You aren’t getting ANY way, you stupid—“

A short purple flash shot through Frosty’s horn and his eyes became red dots. The bouncer started stumbling, but caught himself and looked down to Frosty again, now with a slight purple shimmer in his eyes.

“Greetings, young master. How can I be of service to you?” He asked in a much humbler and nicer tone than before.

“Greetings, I merely need you to open the doors for us right now.” Frosty answered.

“Certainly, my master. Is there anything else I can do for you?” The bouncer asked while moving toward the door.

“Yes, actually. I want you to resume the life of your host as if nothing happened and inform me about anything worth of note regarding Safe Count or his family.” Frosty ordered.

“Understood. I will send any noteworthy actions directly to you over the mind link.” The bouncer answered.

Frosty suppressed a triumphant ‘Ah-ha!’ when his blind guess turned out to be correct. So there was a way for him to communicate and even travel directly between his subjects through the use of necromancy that he didn’t know about and who knows what else there is that he didn’t know? Frosty concluded that he really should ask Pharynx to tell him everything saved within the Great Expanse, even the things that he already knows. Maybe he can learn something new even about the things he already learned?

But that wasn’t important now. What was important now was that their goal for this night was right beyond this door and that they just needed to step through it.

It was a busy day in the ‚Frilly Filly‘. The mares at work were going to and fro, servicing their ‚guests‘, who were mostly nobles, with the odd Gangster Boss mixed in-between. Given the nature of the establishment, it was only natural for those closer to the entrance to wonder about the entrance of four foals, three fillies and one colt.

„Whoa.“ Scootaloo exclaimed as they entered the large main room. „This place is HUGE!“

„Yeah… and tha dresses those mares wear make me understand what you meant earlier about this place…“ Applebloom added.

Truly, given their purpose, all the mares working there wore clothes not to hide anything, but on the contrary, to even draw MORE attention to their naughty parts.

„Indeed. Certainly not a place for sweet little fillies like you are and neither a place where a colt like me should be found. However, we can’t worry about things like these now. After all we came here for something important.” Frosty stated, before moving down the middle alley with the CMCs falling into step behind him.

All three of the fillies wore dresses which were fitting to their owner’s coat in colour, while Frosty wore a simple black business suit with a fedora hat. Their outfits were one of the reasons why the guests that noticed them weren’t all that alarmed about their presence, even if it got them an odd look or another. After all, adults with the body size of a foal were rare, sure, but not unheard of.

The four made their way further into the establishment, heading straight for a table, which was already occupied. Its occupant was a large, brown stallion. Officially, his name was Safe Count and he was an accountant in the royal financial department. Unofficially, however, he was the head of the biggest Mafia in Equestria. His Influence stretched from Canterlot far into the major cities like Las Pegasus or Manehattan. He was also a regular at the ‘Frilly Filly’ and the mares here knew about his true identity. Did they care? Oh yes, they certainly did, or else there probably wouldn’t be hundreds of them swarming all around him.

Spotting his target, Frosty picked up his pace and the CMC followed close behind and when they finally reached the Stallion’s table, they sat down directly opposite of him, which of course immediately grabbed his attention.

“What? Three fillies and a colt? Hah, how did you even get in here? Ah, doesn’t matter, what do you want? I don’t sell ice cream and I won’t donate to some orphanage, just so you know.”

“Good day, mister Safe Count. Do not worry, we are not here to waste your time with some donation or anything of that sort. Rather, I wanted to propose a deal. The… off-the-books kind of deal, if you know what I mean…” Frosty said, smirking at the stallion directly in front of him.

“What? What’s that supposed to mean? Who are you?” The stallion asked, not amused in the slightest.

“Oh come on, mister Safe Count, we know that you aren’t just some accountant. Like I said, we want to strike up a deal with you and I promise you that it will be beneficial to both sides.” Frosty answered.

“I told you to tell me your name, kiddo. If you know as much as you claim then you certainly know that I am not one to play games with.” Safe Count half-threatened, though Frosty remained calm.

“Oh please, I just told you this is going to be off the books. Let’s just keep my name off the record for this.”

“No, I said I WANT YOUR NAME!!!” Safe Count shouted, slamming a hoof on the table, making Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom flinch back and scoot closer to Frosty, who had remained completely calm.

“Well, well…” He started. “If you insist, I suppose it can’t be helped. I shall give you my name. My name is… Frozen Blood.”

As soon as the name was spoken, the room went completely silent. The mere mention of this name had caused every bit of conversation to be cut and Safe Count was now the one to flinch back.

Frosty only chuckled from the reaction his name was causing after only so little time and was excited to see, which extent this reaction would have later on. For now, though, the reaction he was getting was a thrilling experience in its own right.

“W-wait, you mean… you’re that necromancer that survived a blast from the princess herself?” Safe Count asked hesitantly.

“The one and only.” Frosty answered him.

Safe Count scooted back a bit more, but then his expression changed to a smile. He started chuckling, then giggling and then outright burst with laughter, with the rest of the room following suit.

“You wimp claim to be the single most feared unicorn at the moment? HA! Don’t make me laugh, kiddo. Foals like you four better don’t test my temper or they will end up where their parents won’t ever find them again.”

Frosty let a short, half-sided smile slip across his face. “That is not an issue, good sir, as I have no parents to search for me in the first place.” He said calmly, pushing his fedora up ever so slightly and looking Safe Count directly into his eyes.

“Heh, well that makes this an easy affair, really. If there’s nopony to search for you, then there’s nopony that might call the guards either.” He said, before turning around and waving at a few stallions that were sitting in the next aisle over. “Gentlemen, please deal with him for me.”

At his command, the stallions got up and walked over to Frosty, cutting off all his escape routes.

“Ah. I see you’re dead set on not letting me escape alive.” Frosty noted flatly.

“Quite indeed, young colt. It’s just too bad for these cute fillies you have there. Girls like these sell for quite amazing prices on the black market.”

“I can imagine, they’re my greatest treasure, after all. I have to disappoint you, however: Neither am I planning on dying here, nor are these four beauties for sale.” Frosty joked.

“We will see about that. Kill them.” Safe count ordered.

The stallions closed in on Frosty and the CMC, who were fearfully looking at the tightening circle around them. Frosty, however, still remained calm.

“We will see about that, indeed.” He said, before his horn flashed purple and the stallions around them collapsed. His red dots meanwhile remained fixed on Safe Count, who was now giving him a shocked look.

A short moment of silence ensued, before one could hear multiple of the mares present – employees and guests alike – scream in terror and trying to make their way towards the exit. However, when they tried to get through, their path was blocked by the bouncer.

The henchponies that lay dead on the floor slowly crumbled to dust, leaving only a few small piles behind. If one watched closely enough, one could see a few specks of dust be drawn towards Frosty, as he absorbed the souls and remaining lifeforce from the corpses.

Frosty kept his eyes on Safe Count throughout this whole ordeal. The poor stallion now looked like the mere existence of the colt in front of him was ripping his soul apart and in a sense, he was right.

“So, mister Safe Count… now that this little game of ours has concluded, how about we start the actual negotiations?”

Rainbow Dash arrived at Sweet Apple Acres late in the afternoon. Applejack had asked her to come over after work, but didn’t say a reason for it. Maybe she wanted to settle a score? Their hoof wrestling scores were still tied, after all.

“Darling, what a coincidence to meet you here. Were you also about to visit Applejack?” A familiar, overly lady-like voice called from behind her.

“Hey there, Rares. Actually, Applejack asked me to come over. I don’t know why though.” Rainbow greeted her.

“Oh really? My, that’s quite strange indeed. I am also here because she asked me to come. I wonder if anypony else got called here today.” Rarity asked out loud.

Both mares then looked around for a few moments, but nothing happened.

“Well, if anypony else got invited then Pinkie isn’t among them.” Rainbow noted, when no pink party pony popped out of nowhere.

“It would seem so and since Twilight is always on point and Fluttershy clings to you like a barnacle… it seems we really are the only ones.” Rarity noted.

“Yeah… but what would Applejack want to talk about with us?” Rainbow asked.

“I think I have a pretty good guess on that, actually.”

“Really? How?”

“Oh come on, darling, isn’t it obvious? In all seriousness, your relation with Applejack is less of a friendship and more of a friendly rivalry, while I myself don’t really interact with her that much at all. If it were some serious matter, she would most likely go to Twilight or maybe even Pinkie Pie. That means that – assuming she doesn’t just want to have tea with us – she most likely wants to talk about our sisters.” Rarity explained.

“Oh. Yeah, now that you say it, it seems obvious. Okay, let’s get this over with.” Rainbow said, before knocking on the door.

“Come in, it’s open!” Applejack called from inside.

Rainbow and Rarity opened the door and, as they walked inside, they saw Applejack sit at her family’s kitchen table… with a bloody nose.

“Oh dear Celestia, darling! What in the world happened to you?!” Rarity shouted when she saw the state Applejack was in.

Both of them rushed over to help her, but she held up a hoof, signalling that she didn’t need help.

“Frosty came by for a visit last night.” Applejack said shortly.

“What?! Oh that colt, I’m gonna buck him to the moon and--!” Rainbow shouted, but Applejack stopped her.

“No, Rainbow, wait. He came by last night, but not for this.” She pointed a hoof at her nose. “This was… more or less my own fault. I actually found him rummaging through his own clothes and pulling out the suit that you gave him, Rares. He also had three dresses with him and I doubt that they were for him.”

“Dresses? What would he need dresses for?” Rarity asked.

“I don’t know, the best ah could come up with was that they were havin’ their own little wedding ceremony. At least he seems ta care a lot fer our girls, if he even sneaks back int’ Ponyville jus’ t’ get ‘em some dresses.”

“A wedding? Oh darling, as wonderful as that sounds, why would they have a wedding? And more so, why wouldn’t they invite us to it?” Rarity asked.

“Oh ah dunno, maybe because we banished their coltfriend without hesitatin’?” Applejack said, her tone rising a bit.

“Yeah…” Rainbow agreed quietly, while rubbing her foreleg with a hoof. “Probably didn’t help that princess Celestia tried to kill him…”

“Yeah… that’s actually another thing that ah wanted t’ tell ya’ll about. When the princess said that she didn’t know ‘bout what happens when he dies… ah think she was lyin’.”

“WHAT?!” Both, Rarity and Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“Darling, are you sure? That doesn’t sound like the princess at all! Maybe you’re just over-empathizing with him, because he is your adopted son?” Rarity asked.

“No, Rares, ah thought that at first, but ah never thought somepony else was lyin’ just because family was involved, so why would I now?” Applejack asked back.

“Then… what do we do? Did you tell Twilight about this?” Rainbow asked.

“Ah did. That was why she did that ritual-thing on us.”

“Oh…” Rarity and Rainbow said.

“Ah think we should try ’n find ‘em. Go t’ them and apologize and maybe try an’ understand Frosty a bit better. Ah mean, really, we were all afraid of him when we were told and angry ‘cause he didn’t tell us, but what if he knew that we would react that way and hid it because of that?”

“Yes, maybe… Darling, even though I do not like it at all, I think I have to agree with you. Maybe we overreacted a bit. He never harmed any of us after all.” Rarity said.

“Yeah, I’m with you on that. I’ve been feeling like a douchebag ever since we threw him out, even though he saved my life… The question is: How do we find them? It’s not like any of us can feel where he is or something.”

“I-I think I can help with that.” The voice of a young filly suddenly came from the door.

The three mares looked at the door and when they all recognized her, they looked at her with a look of wonder.

“Diamond Tiara?”

The Consequences of your Actions

Early the next morning, Twilight and Diamond Tiara are waiting in front of the Golden Oaks Library. Spike is with them, although without any additional equipment, as he will remain home. Originally, he wanted to come with, but a quick talk with Twilight and the passing of intel about a stash of Gems within the Library quickly convinced him otherwise.

While they were waiting, an eerie silence reigned between them. Twilight was still wary of the corrupted filly, while Tiara was well aware of that, yet tried to ignore it.

“Why?” Twilight suddenly asked.

“Why what?” Tiara asked back.

“Why are you helping us?” Twilight asked again. “It does not make sense for you to just betray him like that.”

“Who said that I am betraying him? I’m trying to help him reconcile with you by giving you a chance to do so.” Tiara answered.

“And how would you know that he really wants that?”

Tiara thought for a moment, before shaking her head. “I don’t know it. I just… have the feeling that this is what he wants.”

“Alright. Just so you know: I may have agreed to this, but I also still think that this is a trap. Don’t even think that I will take my eyes off you for even a moment.” Twilight warned.

At that moment, one could hear the clopping of hooves approach, before Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie came into sight.

“Alright, here we are. Are y’all ready t’ go?” Applejack asked upon her arrival, not noticing the tension between Twilight and Tiara.

“Yes, of course we are, Applejack. Now quick, we need to find Frosty as soon as possible!” Twilight hurried, pushing Diamond Tiara forward with a hoof.

Tiara looked back over her shoulder and then sighed once. “Alright, let’s go.” She said, before galloping off, which through her short legs was barely faster than a trot for the adults.

“Let me help ya there.” Applejack said, before swinging Tiara onto her back, which caused the filly to yelp in surprise. “Y’all just concentrate on givin’ directions and ah’ma concentrate on runnin’, okay?”

“Alright! First, into the Everfree!”

The soft glow of the morning sun shone into the small log house in the Everfree, in which a colt and his three fillies lay huddled together.

Frosty opened his eyes, as a beam of sunlight shone directly into his face. He carefully got up and gave his body a good stretch. The CMC squirmed in their sleep when the warmth in their midst suddenly vanished. They softly flailed around until they found each other and ended up in a smaller huddle between the three.

Frosty chuckled at the sight. It was moments like these that almost made him drop his goal and just keep living peacefully in the forest together with these three.

Almost.

Frosty moved on towards the door and stepped outside. The warm sun shone into his face and reminded him once more… who his enemy really was.

“Good morning, my lord!” Pharynx greeted from his post by the door.

“Good morning, Pharynx. Did anything of note happen during the night?” Frosty greeted back.

“No sir. With all due respect, if anything had happened we would’ve woken you up.” Pharynx reminded.

“Yes, I know Pharynx, it was just – you know, a standard thing to say.” Frosty replied.

“Ah, of course, sir.”

“In any case, I am going to wash myself before I go to Canterlot again. When the girls wake up, please tell them to do the same. We may be mostly alone out here, but that doesn’t mean they can just ignore their hygiene.” Frosty ordered.

“Of course, sir.” Pharynx replied.

Upon Pharynx’s reply, Frosty nodded and went into the foliage.

The day after they arrived here, the girls had discovered a small waterfall nearby. ‘Nearby’ in this case meaning a few hundred meters away, but still close enough to be reached fairly quickly, made even quicker by the small path that had formed on the ridge between the mountain their house was placed against and the forest itself.

While washing off the traces of last night, he thought of his plans. The officer he turned had brought the duty roster for the palace, as promised, so now Frosty only needed to catch them one by one and turn them into his vassals, just like he did with the lieutenant.

“Sir, miss Zecora has come to visit and wishes to speak with you.” Pharynx called over the mind-link.

After Frosty had confirmed the existence of said link, he immediately went to Pharynx and had him teach the usage of it. Such a method of instant-messaging will undoubtedly be useful in the future after all.

“Of course. Tell her to wait a moment, I’m quickly gonna dry off.” He sent back.

Frosty then shook himself in the sun, flinging off all the excess water like a dog and then combed his coat and mane, lest he look like a certain pink fluffball when he returned. He then teleported back to Pharynx, where Zecora was impatiently waiting for him.

“Good day, Zecora. I hope you’re doing well.” He greeted.

“My luck has indeed been tame, but for you, I cannot say the same.” Zecora said with a frown and a shake of her head.

“Uhh, what do you mean with that?” Frosty asked cautiously.

“What I mean is that caution is advised, for Twilight and her friends will soon arrive.”

Frosty’s look suddenly darkened and he gestured to Pharynx and the commander to barricade all doors and windows.

“Are you certain? I can’t believe they would find us this quickly.”

“How they could find you, I cannot say, but I believe I saw a filly showing the way.”

A moment of realization hit Frosty like a brick, before he firmly facehoofed and groaned. “Ahh, no… wait, if you saw them, how come you are here faster than they are?”

“Well, dear friend, while they are dashing forward without any ruse, I chose a path that is easy to use.” Zecora said smugly.

“Ah. Well, in any case I thank you for that info, Zecora. Now, for your own sake, I urge you to leave, lest you are once again branded a witch of the woods just because you were seen with us.” Frosty advised.

“While that would be true in any other way, I have already elected to stay.”

“What? You do realize that they will likely try to kill you just as well as us?”

“Indeed, stay will likely be a foolish end, but even more foolish it would be to abandon a friend.” Zecora said firmly.

Frosty sighed in defeat, before looking back at the mare. “Alright, if you’re so certain then I won’t stop you.”

At that moment, Pharynx came back around from behind the lodge. “Sir, we have barricaded every possible entrance to the house. Your wives are awake now, but they understand the situation and agreed to stay inside.”

“Wives?” Zecora asked.

“Yep. Pharynx asked me what status the fillies hold and before I could answer him, they already called themselves my wives and, I mean, it`s a nice and short word, so why not?” Frosty explained.

Zecora chuckled in amusement, but otherwise refrained from further commenting on it.

Meanwhile the Element Bearers were squeezing themselves through the foliage, scratching and pinching their skin and fur, but still pressing on.

“Dear Celestia, after this I will have to spend at least half a day at the spa!” Rarity declared.

“First we’ll have to find them, Rarity. If we don’t then this whole ordeal was for nothing.” Twilight said. “Hey, Diamond Tiara, how far until we reach them?”

“Not far. They`re behind that bushline right there!” Tiara said, pointing straight ahead.

“Great. Let’s get out of this mess, before my mane really is beyond saving!” Rarity said, sprinting ahead. The others followed her lead and together, they broke the bushline and saw a small log house in a clearing before a mountain. Directly in front of said log house, they saw that Frosty and two strange, bug-like creatures were already waiting for them, as well as…

“Zecora?” Twilight wondered out loud.

“Frosty! Oh, ah’m so glad t’see ya again!” Applejack exclaimed.

“Yes, it is quite nice to see you’re well.” Rarity agreed.

“So, how’re the girls? Where are they?” Rainbow asked.

Frosty, however, only gave them a cold look. “Why are you here?” He asked.

“What? Euh, Diamond Tiara led us here and—“

“No. WHY are you here?” Frosty repeated.

Applejack, Rainbow and Rarity were looking at the ground and drawing circles with their hooves. Of course, they understood the question the first time around. They just found that, now that they were really there, it was a lot harder to apologize than they had anticipated.

“Frosty, we came here to say that… we’re sorry.” Fluttershy said.

“Yes, we’re sorry, Frosty. What we did back there just… it wasn’t right at all.” Applejack agreed.

“Quite indeed. We’ve made a big mistake and just blindly followed the princess. We should’ve thought for ourselves before we made such a stupid decision.” Rarity added.

“Yeah. After all, you saved my life and you’re the most awesome colt I know! How could I even get the idea that you’re the bad guy?”

Frosty pondered for a moment. The Elements of Harmony are standing directly in front of him, but instead of eliminating him, they want to apologize? The most reasonable thing to assume was a deception, but Applejack was not capable of lying, especially not in such a convincing way. Also, reconciling with the elements will certainly only benefit him in the long run.

“Alright. I accept your apology. I must say, in truth I also missed you quite a lot.” Frosty said with a smile.

“YAY! RECONCILIATION-PARTY!” Pinkie screamed.

“Ya hear that, Twi? Frosty’s givin’ us a new chance! Come on, y’all apologize too an’ we can all go back home!”

However, Twilight didn’t look as joyful as the others. Not in the slightest.

“Apologize? Why should I apologize? First I find out that he has to be controlling you somehow and in a way that I can’t detect, then I learn that there’s even more of his pawns in Ponyville and now, even Zecora is under his control…” She mumbled.

“Control us? Twilight, I can assure you we aren’t controlled by anypony, but ourselves. Really, Twilight, why would—“ Rarity said, but Twilight ignored her.

“… but you know what? Frosty is the source of all this, right? That means if he’s gone, then you all will be free again.” Twilight continued, charging her horn with magic.

“Twi, please don’t do that! We came here t’ apologize, not tah destroy everythin’ we worked for!” Applejack pleaded, but Twilight didn’t listen.

“I will not stand back while an evil tyrant like you is on the loose! FOR THE PRINCESSES!!” She shouted, shooting a high-energy beam of magic directly towards Frosty. Applejack and Rainbow immediately went in to tackle Twilight to the ground, but not fast enough to stop the beam completely.

Frosty erected a strong shield and braced for the impact… that never came. The beam missed him and Frosty’s eyes went wide with shock, when he heard it impact something behind him, which immediately burst into flames. He spun around and saw that the lodge was engulfed in flames, shooting a thick, black pillar of smoke up into the sky.

“GIRLS!!!!” he shouted, before galloping to the lodge as fast as he could, the two changelings directly behind him.

Without a moment of thought, he kicked down the reinforced door and vanished into the flames.

The pained screams of the three fillies could even be heard outside. When they heard them, Applejack and Rainbow had let go of Twilight and they and Rarity were looking at the burning lodge in silent shock. Tears collected in their eyes, from their grief as well as from the lack of blinking, as they dared not look away from the fire.

Finally, Frosty and the changelings re-emerged from the flames and on their backs were three small, smoking forms. They laid them on the ground and Frosty stayed with them. Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow immediately rushed over to them, but really wished they hadn’t.

All three fillies were heavily burnt. Their lower bodies were black as ash and their fur was almost completely gone. Their skin was heavily burnt and only Sweetie Belle’s face was still recognizable. Scootaloo and Applebloom had lost their eyes and their mouths were singed shut. They could only breathe through their snouts and even that was almost impossible due to the damage.

Frosty looked at their souls and saw, that they were already slowly dissipating… they were dying.

“Frosty…” Sweetie Belle pleaded weakly. “Please… help me.”

Frosty had tears in his eyes. Yet again, he felt so powerless. He was a Necromancer, a disciple of death itself, yet he couldn’t even save his own wives.

“I… I can’t. I can’t…” He weeped.

“F-Frosty… please… I don’t want to die…” Sweetie pleaded again.

“I-I’m sorry…”

“Sir, if you want them to survive then I suggest turning them undead. That way, their bodies and souls would be preserved.” Pharynx offered.

“But even if I returned their full soul, they would lose all free will. I-I don’t want that…” Frosty said.

“Then… what if you give us… more?” Sweetie offered weakly, before suddenly going limp.

“Sweetie? SWEETIE!!” Frosty panicked. “No, Sweetie, stay with me!”

“Sir, giving a body more than their original soul’s worth has not been tried before. The chance is minimal, but it could work.” Pharynx said.

Frosty looked at Pharynx uncertainly, however he quickly focused again. There was no time for hesitation. There were literal lives on the line!

Frosty concentrated on the souls of the three fillies and removed them from their bodies. In his necromantic grip, he then amplified them. Three-fold – sixfold – TENFOLD! He gave them as much energy as he could spare and placed them back into their bodies… and then he waited.

Silence was what followed, only broken by the rushing fire behind them. Nopony moved, not even Twilight. At first, she wanted to seize the moment and send a second beam into Frosty. However, when she saw the three fillies, her actions finally caught up with her.

After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, something finally began to happen. At first, it was only a subtle change, but bit by bit, the burned tissue healed. The healing grew faster and faster, replacing burned hair and skin at a pace that even the most advanced medical spells could not replicate.

Their breathing returned and their faces went back to normal – for the most part at least. Their eyes, including Sweetie’s were now gone and replaced with small, red dots that shone through a deep black void.

All three of them were holding their heads and squirming on the ground.

“Whoah! Whooooah! That’s a lotta stuff!” Applebloom exclaimed.

“Frooostyyy~~ My head is gonna explode!” Sweetie whined.

“Yeah. Did you feel the same when you became like this?” Scootaloo asked.

“Uhhh… what?” Frosty answered intelligently.

“Sir, I believe they’re experiencing their first connection to the expanse.” Pharynx stated.

“Ah… Euh, no, it didn’t feel like that for me, I, uhm… I’m kinda not connected to that Expanse-thing.” Frosty admitted sheepishly.

“What, really? Wow, you found all that out on your own?! Hah, I knew we chose the right coltfriend!” Scootaloo exclaimed.

“Was there ever any doubt?” Sweetie asked.

“Nuh-uh.” Applebloom answered, shaking her head.

“Applebloom! Yer alive! Oh I’m so—“

“Stay away.” Applebloom commanded as Applejack tried to hug her.

“W-What?”

“Ya heard right. Ah dunno, what y’all were tryin’ t’do here, but all ya did was almost kill us! Ya know what? Almost ain’t right. Ah ain’t yer sister no more! Yer sister’s dead!” Applebloom spat.

“Now now, Applebloom, that was a little harsh, wasn’t it?” Frosty chastised.

“But… it was true.” Applejack agreed miserably. “But still, Frosty, yer still alive. You and yer marefriends are always welcome t’come back home.” Applejack offered.

“I’m sorry, but no, Applejack. With everything that happened, I just can’t risk staying any longer. The smoke from the fire will undoubtedly soon be seen and then, the guard will be swarming all around here, searching for me. I simply just cannot come with you.” Frosty declined.

Applejack’s ears fell flat to her head and she looked down to the ground with a sad expression. “Oh… okay then… I guess, this is farewell…”

“Yes, I’m afraid so. Farewell, Applejack.” Frosty said, before he, the girls and the changelings left the burning hut and vanished into the forest.

“Let’s go girls. We better get back home…” Applejack said, passing the group and giving a glare towards Twilight. “Zecora, are ya comin’?”

“I shall wait here until the fire is dead, lest the flames will grow and spread.” Zecora answered.

Applejack nodded once and then continued her walk home. Rarity, Rainbow, Pinkie and Fluttershy followed her, each shooting a short glare towards Twilight.

“Girls, please, I’m sorry!” She pleaded.

“Yeah, you should be sorry, alright! You happy now? The girls almost died there and now they don’t want anything to do with us. Really, I wonder why the Elements of Harmony ever chose you as magic!” Rainbow spat, before catching back up with the others.

“So, anyways, how do you plan on conquering Equestria now?” Scootaloo asked.

“Hmm, what? Conquer Equestria? Euh, what are you talking about?” Frosty feigned innocence.

“Oh, come now, Frosty. You know, this mind-link-thingy is pretty useful. We know what you’re planning and we even know about Diamond Tiara and that mare in Canterlot~~” Sweetie Belle said.

“W-What? Uhh, really?” Frosty asked sheepishly. “Uhh, sorry?”

“Oh, no need to be sorry. Really, we’re completely okay with that.” Sweetie said.

“Yeah. You’re our King now. Why would a King not have a few concubines?” Applebloom said.

“Uhh, what, I’m your king?”

“Yep. Seems like we’re now somethin’ like ‘Undead Queens’ an’ that means yer our king!” She stated.

“Huh, neat.”

“Yeah, but Frosty, you have to promise us one thing: Next time we’re in heat, it’s our turn.” Sweetie Belle ordered, while swishing his sheath with her tail.

“Oh, but with pleasure.” He said, kissing her neck and eliciting an erotic moan from her.

“So what do we do now?” Scootaloo asked.

“We’re leaving Equestria for now. We can’t do anything here anymore, at least nothing that would benefit us and I also have an idea. You know, a war really would be the perfect thing to happen for us right now, as we could collect souls en masse, while also gaining the favour of the Equestrian military if we were to help them. Sadly there’s currently no war going on, but that can be changed.” Frosty explained.

“Ooooh, so we go into another country and make them go to war with Equestria? Heh, sounds like fun.” Sweetie Belle said.

“Yep. The only problem is that I’m uncertain which country would be best.” Frosty stated.

“I would suggest Zebrica, my lord. As we have heard from Zecora, Necromancy and Soul Magic in general is quite commonly used down there, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find supporters.” Pharynx suggested.

“Good idea, but I would like to save Zebrica as a last refuge, in case things go downhill yet again. What about the Changelings?”

“Changeling society doesn’t allow for wars. We attack sometimes, yes, but not to seize land, but to secure either a new hive or a new source of love. After a successful attack, we generally retreat ourselves back into our hives and are busy staying alive.” Pharynx stated.

“How about the Gryphons?” Scootaloo offered.

“Right now, there’s barely any Gryphon ‘society’ to speak of. It would be hard to unite them under one banner and have them go to war.” Frosty declined.

“Then what ‘bout the Dragons? They’re aggressive, have a king and don’t like ponies.” Applebloom offered.

“Hey, that`s perfect! Nice, Applebloom. Alright, everypony: Onwards towards the Dragon lands!” Frosty ordered, marching ahead with his group following closely behind.

Meanwhile in the Ponyville Guard Station, a young private was looking at a recently filled report with confusion.

“Uhh, I’m sorry, you want to report Princess Celestia’s Personal Student?”

Before him, three mares were sitting and waiting impatiently for him to process the report.

“Yeah. ‘s there a problem with that, officer?” Applejack asked back.

“Uhh, no, it’s just… what do you want to report her for?”

Applejack leaned onto the table and went right into his face.

“Triple Murder.”

Author's Note

And so, the CMC became Necromancers. Neat :3

Of Prosecutions and Provocations

The Ponyville courthouse was presented with a rather unusual case that day. Not only was this a case between the Elements of Harmony, but the accused was nopony else than Twilight Sparkle, the princess’s personal student and Bearer of the Element of Magic. To make matters even weirder, she was accused of the highest crime in pony society: murder and triple at that.

Judge High Crime entered court with a very bored expression. He was the go-to stallion for murder cases in Ponyville and surroundings, which were far more numerous than one might think. Although, usually it was just some kind of dispute between couples or groups of friends that somehow escalated too far. These kinds of cases then always followed the same path: the defendant pleads not guilty, the judge asks the prosecution to present evidence and usually it ends here, as usually there isn’t any.

“I call for order! Court is now in session!” He shouted when he reached his seat, hammering his gavel onto the table before him. He then put the hammer down and looked through a stack of papers.

“Alright, today we have the case ‘Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rarity against Twilight Sparkle’. The defendant is accused of having murdered the three sisters of the present mares. Defense, how do you plead?” He asked.

Twilight’s ears folded back and she looked miserably to the ground, while answering: “Guilty, your honor.”

“Alright, then we shall—wait, WHAT?!” The judge shouted in surprise. Nopony was crazy enough to plead guilty on a murder case, especially not the princess’s personal student! “Miss Sparkle, I am sure you are aware that you will serve a life sentence in prison, if you’re convicted, are you?”

“Yes, your honor.” Twilight answered miserably.

“So, do you still plead guilty?” He asked again.

“Yes, your honor.” Was her answer.

Judge High Crime sat back in his chair for a moment and gaped at Twilight, before shaking his head and nervously continuing: “Uhh, alright. Ahem, the prosecution may now present their evidence.”

“What?!” Rainbow shouted. “You just heard her! She pleads guilty! Why would you want us to present evidence if she herself says she’s guilty?!”

“Because that mare looks like she is in distress, which to me means that she might’ve been pressured into pleading guilty. Now Silence! Unless you have evidence to present!”

Rainbow, Rarity and Applejack glanced at each other. They didn’t have any evidence, only a filly and a zebra who could act as witnesses. However, if they were to call Diamond Tiara to the stand, they would run the risk of getting it known that she was undead and Zecora already had enough problems with the town, just because it was Frosty who had made first contact with her.

“Euh, no evidence, your honor.” Rainbow said after a while.

“Ah. I see. Well, we shall now retreat to discuss our verdict. Court stands adjourned for one hour.” High Crime said, before slipping through a door right behind him. The Jury followed closely and all of them took a seat on a table on the other side.

“So, what do you think?” High Crime then asked.

“I think we should go for a guilty verdict. She admitted to the crime, did she not? Granted, there was no evidence, but she seemed deeply ashamed of herself back there, so at least she did something wrong. It is not our job to find out, what exactly that is.” One of the nobles from the jury said.

“I agree. Miss Sparkle may not be a type for murder, but nopony really is and some do it anyways.”

A row of nods followed that statement.

“Yes, I know what you are getting at, but I feel like we should go for a ‘Not Guilty’ here.” High Crime said. “I mean, law here or there, I really don’t want to convict Princess Celestia’s personal student for a crime without evidence. We saw what she did to that Necromancer-colt back then and I don’t think that any of us are strong enough to survive a blast by the princess.”

Suddenly everypony in the room seemed quite sweaty. Some were adjusting their collars, while others were casting nervous glances to each other.

“I-I see. I mean, you do have a point. Convicting somepony without evidence is certainly not what we swore to do.” A mare from the jury said, gaining a round of nervous nods from her colleagues.

“Alright. Then, I think we all agree on a ‘not guilty’ verdict?” High Crime asked, earning him a round of nods as well.

An hour later, court resumed. High Crime hammered on the table again and when everypony had calmed down, he announced his verdict.

“With the power bestowed upon me by Princess Celestia, I, Judge High Crime, hereby declare the present 'Twilight Sparkle’ NOT GUILTY!”

“WHAT?!” Twilight shouted. “But your honor, I pleaded GUILTY!”

“I know that, but that does not force me to declare you guilty in any way.” High Crime said back. “Besides, if I had declared you guilty, the Jury would’ve just overruled me and given you the not guilty anyways.”

“But… But…”

“Listen, you mare: I do not know, why you wanted to be declared guilty for such a high crime, but I have already made my judgement and it won’t change. The trial is over, go home!” High Crime said, before finally leaving the court.

Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow did the same, leaving Twilight alone in the courtroom.

She remained seated, even an hour after she had won the trial… and started sobbing. She wanted to get a guilty verdict, she wanted to get punished… but she didn’t. The guilt she felt was crushing her heart and soul, driving her deeper and deeper down into depression and would likely have driven her insane, if it wasn`t for a certain white Alicorn to show up.

“Twilight, dear, what happened? How did you end up in a trial like this?!” the princess asked in concealed shock, though Twilight had known her long enough to see through her mask.

“Oh princess, I’ve… I’ve commited murder… I murdered the sisters of my friends!” She cried and then rushed over and buried her snout in the princess’s chest.

“Well… that sounds like there is a story waiting to be told. Why don’t you tell me what happened and we can work something out together?” Celestia offered, sitting down and letting Twilight lean into her chest for comfort.

“Well, you see… my friends found out where Frosty was hiding, so they came to me and wanted to get me to meet with him. However, while they went to apologize, I went to destroy him.” Twilight started.

“Oh Twilight, that’s not something you should be put in jail for! You simply did what was right.” Celestia ensured.

“Y-Yes, I know, it’s just… Their sisters ran away together with him and—and when I finally found him, I immediately charged a spell and shot at him, but… but I missed and I hit them instead!” She cried, burying her face in Celestia’s fur and leaving a darkened spot in it.

“Oh dear Twilight, you’ve done nothing wrong.” Celestia said.

“W-Wha--? What do you mean?” Twilight hesitantly asked.

“Twilight, please think for a moment. If the girls fled together with Frosty, then he must’ve had them under his influence, long before he was even discovered.”

Twilight looked up from Celestia’s chest, up to her face. Her eyes were sore from her crying and her cheeks and snout were wet from the tears she had shed.

“R-Really?” She asked hesitantly.

“Yes, really. Don’t worry, dear Twilight, you haven’t killed them. Frosty has.”

“But… but my friends… they’re so angry at me. What am I gonna do?” Twilight asked nervously.

“Well, since they’re likely under the influence of Frosty as well, it is no wonder that they are. Think about it, why else would they have wanted to reconcile with somepony who is clearly a threat to Equestria as a whole? Rainbow Dash in particular has been acting far out of character, since she so utterly betrayed Equestria, even though she bears the Element of Loyalty.” Celestia explained.

Twilight, in her state of distress, soaked up the princess’s very word like a sponge soaks water. A being, so flawless and benevolent like Princess Celestia would never lie, after all. Right?

With every word Celestia spoke, Twilight’s sobs grew quieter and quieter, until they were completely gone. Her cheeks slowly dried as the flow of tears subsided and her face showed an expression, no longer of sadness and despair, but of mild bewilderment and determination.

“So that means that Frosty is the core of all evil after all.” She concluded.

“Exactly. The only way to finally stop this madness is to eliminate him.” Celestia stated calmly and motherly, as if she was just giving her some parental advice. “Your friends will certainly go back to normal once his influence subsides.”

“So I’ll just have to find and kill him! Oh thank you, Celestia! I will immediately go and save Equestria… save my friends from this monster!” Twilight said cheerfully, before hugging Celestia once again and running off towards the exit. “You’ll see, princess, I will make you proud!”

“Oh, yes. I am very certain that you will.”

Meanwhile on a road in southern Equestria:

Frosty and his gang were still on the march. No wonder, as it was quite the trip down to the Dragon Lands and they had to avoid the busier routes. Luckily for them, undead don’t need any nutrition, except for a bit of Necromantic Energy from time to time. However, even if nutrition had been a problem, it wouldn’t have been the biggest on the list.

Their biggest problem at the moment was, that they still had no idea, how to get the dragons to attack Equestria.

“Maybe we could steal some gems and hide them in Canterlot?” Scootaloo offered.

“I doubt that ‘Some Gems’ would be enough to get the dragons to declare war, never mind actually stealing them undetected.” Frosty shot her down.

“Then maybe we should foalnap a few a’ them hatchlings an’ hide ‘em all over Equestria?” Applebloom offered next.

“From what I’ve heard, the current dragon king doesn’t really care about his people that much, especially about the weaklings. If a few hatchlings were missing, then he would probably just ignore it and claim they were too weak. The only results we would have then, would be a few angry mothers.” Frosty said.

“Dontcha underestimate tha wrath of an angry mom!” Applebloom cautioned jokingly, eliciting a small round of laughter from the group.

“Oh no, I’m so scaaaared.” Frosty played along. “Really though, we need a solid plan before we enter the dragon lands, or else we will waste too much time.”

“Hey, doesn’t the King himself have a hatchling?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Umm, to my knowledge, he has a daughter, about the same age as me.” Frosty answered.

“Then why don’t we just foalnap her?” She offered.

“Hmmm, yes, that’s going in the right direction. The only problem I have with that plan is that once he found her, he will likely return home.” Frosty thought out loud.

“Then why don`t we just… eat her?” Sweetie Belle offered, causing the whole group to adopt sinister looks and lick their mouths.

“Ooh, a very good idea, Sweetie. Yes, a very good idea indeed… and I think I even know how to realize it already…” Frosty said, as the last Guard Base before the border appeared on the horizon.

Frosty may have experienced a minor setback, but the end was nevertheless fast approaching…

Flaming and Blaming

Ibique Moriemini, one of the few romane ponies in the Royal Guard, had the misfortune of having gate duty on this absolutely scorching day. His partner Et-Non Morieris, a romane pony as well, was standing on the other side of the gate.

“I tell ya Et-Non, it’s gonna be on one of these days that I’mma die of a sunburn or something.” Ibique said.

“Heh, too hot to think of a good one-liner? Eh, I can’t blame ya at all. Why in the world did we have to get stationed to the dragon lands anyways?”

Just as he asked that, both of them saw something crawl towards them. It was small and moved only very slowly, however protocol dictated that they don’t leave their posts at any circumstance other than immediate danger and Ibique and Et-Non were very thorough with their protocols.

When the object had finally moved close enough, both guardsponies could identify it as a young filly that was crawling its way towards them. It had a light gray coat and a two-tone pink mane that looked like it had met with a horde of stray cats. Overall the filly looked as if it had fought in a gladiator pit and barely came out alive. It had bleeding wounds all over and she seemed to be blind on one eye.

“Woah there, little filly, what happened to you?!” Ibique asked, while rushing over and giving first aid to the filly`s wounds.

“D-Dragons… Help.” The filly wheezed.

“We need to get her inside! Open the gates!” Ibique shouted.

“Woah, woah there, Ibique! You know we aren’t allowed to let anypony in!” Et-Non shouted back.

“This is an emergency, she’s gonna die if we don’t do something!” Ibique shouted back. “To protect and serve, remember?!”

Et-Non looked around nervously, trying to avoid eye-contact. However, he made the mistake of sparing a glance down at the little filly, the appearance of which immediately set his paternal instincts into overdrive.

“Urrgh, fine, but you’re gonna explain that to the colonel.” Et-Non grumbled while pushing the gates open and allowing his partner to carry the filly in.

After a quick visit to the medical ward, an excessively bandaged filly now sat at a table before none other than the colonel of this bastion. The middle-aged stallion looked benevolently over to the meek filly.

“So, dear Sweetie Belle, you claim that you and your friends were taken hostage by the dragons, who are now using them as chewtoys and… other toys until they get bored and eat them.” He summarized. “I hope you realize that the only credibility you have is that we found you covered in scratch wounds. The problem with these is that, while their profile fits a dragon’s claw, they are only very shallow – as if somepony tried to fake them.”

“But I didn’t fake them, I- ouch!” Sweetie whined when she softly slammed her forehooves onto the table and hit the wounds.

“Easy there girl, no need to worry, I believe you. Nevertheless, there isn’t much I can do. We are currently at peace with the dragons, so we will have to ask for permission to investigate first and that can take some time.”

“WHAT?! But you have to save them now! Please, they’re my friends! They’re going to die if you don’t do anything. Please!” Sweetie pleaded with the biggest puppy dog eyes she could bring up.

The colonel seemingly had a very hard time resisting her gaze, seeing as he vehemently tried to look away. Though his tries were in vain, as he seemingly finally gave in when he let his head hang.

“You’re giving me a very hard time, you know that? Might in part be, because my brother – Filthy Rich – has a daughter your age down in Ponyville.”

Sweetie Belle gasped and jumped up onto the table. “You know Diamond?! How is she? Is she okay? Please tell me she didn’t get hurt!!” She shouted.

“Easy there, girl. You know my niece?” The colonel asked with a raised eyebrow and Sweetie, who had now sat back down in her seat, nodded meekly.

“Are you friends with her?”

Sweetie nodded again.

“Are those others friends with her as well?” And again, a nod.

“Blast! This is little incident has just become a VERY personal matter! SERGEANT! RALLY EVERYPONY BUT THE BARE MINIMUM! We’re going on an expedition!” The colonel shouted, before running out of his tent and when she was finally alone, Sweetie Belle grinned evilly.

Meanwhile, Frosty, Applebloom and Scootaloo were sitting behind a few rocks in the dragon lands, scouting out their current target… Ember, the only daughter of Dragon King Torch, who was currently taking a bath along a few other dragonesses.

“I must say, it feels a bit scandalous to be watching the girls bathe right there.” Frosty mumbled.

“Not as scandalous as the things we’re gonna do with you, once this is over.” Scootaloo said, twitching her eyebrows at him.

“Ah’m not sure that’s an appropriate thing to talk about right now.” Applebloom said.

“Yeah, right, Dragon princess. Alright, there don’t seem to be any guards and the girls can likely easily be dealt with.” Frosty assessed.

“Come to think of it, I doubt the guard would pose a problem either.” Scootaloo remarked.

“True. They’d just drop like a bag o’ apples.” Applebloom agreed.

“Heh, I’m glad that you’re so self-certain, but I don’t know if our abilities work the same way on dragons as they do on ponies.” Frosty pointed out.

“Well, there’s only one way to find out.” Scootaloo said, before jumping out of her cover and right into sight of Ember’s three friends.

“HEY, who are you?!” they shouted, making Ember turn around.

“Oh, nopony you need to be concerned about.” Scootaloo answered.

As soon as she finished saying that, the three dragonesses suddenly just fell over, as if they had suddenly fallen asleep.

“Girls?! What’s wrong?!” Ember asked, rushing over to her friends and checking on them. “Oh… oh no… what did you do to them?! No, it can’t be! You didn’t even touch them!”

Ember rose from the corpses of her friends and looked at Scootaloo with an absolutely hate-filled gaze. “I’m gonna make you PAY for this!!” She shouted before dashing towards the orange necroqueen.

Ember screamed a battlecry, making her intent to kill Scootaloo very clear. However, just like that, she too suddenly fell limp. She skidded for a few meters, before stopping right before Scootaloo’s hooves.

“Heh, that was easy.” She smirked.

“Great job, Scoots.” Frosty said from behind her. “That’s actually quite an impressive first kill. Four dragons, one of them a princess on top of that.”

“Hehe, thanks. Now, what next?” She asks.

“Simple. We have to find a way to blame this all on Equestria, which should also be done right about… now.”

Just then, Sweetie Belle teleported back to him, holding a guard’s spear in her horn’s glow.

“Heya, Frosty!” She greeted. “I’ve got the spear and the Guard is currently on its way here.”

“Great. Now, let’s make this seem like a fight.” Frosty says, before starting to slash and stab at the bodies with the spear, spraying blood everywhere and covering them corpses from head to tail in slash and stab wounds. Then, lastly, he lifted the body of Ember and rammed the spear through her chest and then set her to the ground, so that it looked like she was impaled while dashing forwards.

“Alright, now we wait. I bet somepony—or rather some dragon must’ve heard that battlecry. We better hide.” He said, before diving into cover, the three girls right behind him.

Dragon King Torch was flying as fast as he could. The battlecry of his daughter had echoed throughout the entire kingdom and beyond and it didn’t sound like it was just for show… He arrived at the hot ponds, where his daughter used to bathe and called out to her:

“Ember! I demand you report to me immediately!”

No answer came. Worry crept up into his mind, as he searched every single pond. Then, finally, on the last pond, he saw what he never wanted to see.

“EMBER!” He shouted, as he saw his daughter lay on the ground, together with her three friends. The ground was covered in blood and the dragonesses were littered with wounds. Ember herself was lying a few meters off to the side, seemingly having tried a dash attack towards her attacker, but ultimately found a spear embedded in her chest… an Equestrian Spear.

“WAAAAAAH!! These filthy equestrians have killed my DAUGHTER!” He shouted, before shooting into the air, his guard detail by his side.

He looked around, his rage-filled eyes searching for the murderer of his daughter, until they fell on a very shiny formation that was currently marching through his lands. Blinded by his rage, he failed to notice that they were actually moving into and not out of his lands, though that would’ve mattered little.

With one mighty flap, he propelled himself towards the Royal Guard, ready to avenge his daughter.

Ibique and Et-Non marched in formation together with their brethren. Their goal: save and rescue the foals that were foalnapped by these vile dragons. However, their mission shouldn’t be quite as easy as everypony had hoped it would be.

“AMBUSH!” somepony in front shouted, when a giant dragon flew overhead and brought down his flames. A few smaller ones were with him, picking off smaller groups that had split off from the main body, while the big one burned away more and more guardsponies with every swoop.

Half of the regiment was eradicated in the first fly-by, Et-Non among them. Ibique managed to evade just in time and returned fire as much as he could, bringing down one of the smaller Dragons. However, as he saw that more and more of his brethren fell, he panicked and dove behind a rock for cover.

As one of the few ponies who could use the radio-spell, he then immediately called the bastion. “Bastion, this is Spear. Bastion, this is Spear! We have been ambushed by dragons and are suffering heavy losses! We need help! I repeat, we need hel—“

At that moment, one of the smaller dragons had found and landed right in front of him. Ibique slowly looked up into the sadistic look of the large reptile, before he grilled him, just like the rest of the expedition force.

On a rock a few hundred meters away, a light gray colt stood and watched, as his plans seemed to take form. He chuckled darkly to himself, while watching the Dragons mercilessly burn the Royal Guards to ash.

The snowball had started rolling and now, it only needed to get bigger.

Author's Note

Alright, I must say I definitely fucked up the pacing on this one. Might be because it was a rather busy week and all that, but this chapter definitely isn't as good as I'd like it to be. eh, anyways: Some more or less bad news for you: This fic is going on hiatus for a while. not for too long, I assure you, just a month or so. The reson for that is that my other fic is close to completion and I'd like to focus 100% on that, before I come back to write other things.
Don't worry, this will not end up like the thousands of fics that go into hiatus forever. this hiatus is definitely finite. So, until then: have fun reading! :twilightsmile:

The Flames of War

Dragon King Torch stood atop his Pillar of Rule, looking down into the crowd of smaller dragons that had gathered on the Amphitheatre-shaped cliff right in front of him. His face was showing nothing but pure hatred, but deep inside, there was also a deep sadness over the loss of his daughter. However, as a King, he knew how to make use of even the most powerful emotions that he had and so, he turned the sadness he felt over her death into even more hatred towards her murderers.

“DRAGONS OF THE DRAGONLANDS!” Torch shouted, gaining the attention of every dragon present. “Today, the Equestrians have made a foolish decision. My daughter, Ember of the Dragon Lands, has been murdered by these filthy weaklings. This is not something that I can let them get away with! We have found the murderers and killed every single one of them, but that is not enough! Too long have these preposterous ponies tried to force their rules upon us. Now, it is our time to show them, who really is the stronger one! Onwards, my Dragons! WE shall eradicate these worthless weaklings from the face of the planet!” Torch roared and the smaller dragons voiced their agreement.

The collective roars from almost the entire Dragon Kingdom could be heard by everypony that was brave enough to be close to the border. Among them were three fillies and a light grey colt, who were sitting on a rock, only a few miles away from the gathering and grinning evilly at their plan’s apparent success.

Shining Armor and was heaving and panting when he finally reached the outpost. He and the reinforcements he had brought had made as much haste as they could to get here, at the cost of wearing themselves out in doing so. Their priority had been speed over anything else, as they knew that they were heading to the bastion anyways and not heading into battle right away.

Everypony knew that the battle was already over and they were only replacements, not reinforcements.

Once in view of the Gate Guards, its large wooden wings were opened and the tired company of guardsponies was led in, where Shining was immediately greeted by the bastion’s second-in-command.

“Captain Shining Armor, Sir!” He shouted, snapping to attention.

“At ease, sergeant.” Shining Armor replied.

“Yes sir! In accordance with—“ The sergeant started, but Shining Armor cut him off.

“I said ‘At ease’, sergeant! No formalities in the field, remember? Also, I think we have a bigger problem at hoof.” He chastised. The sergeant winced back, but quickly recovered from that.

“Uhh, yes, of course.”

“So, how bad is it?” Shining Armor asked, while gesturing the regiment behind him to enter the bastion.

“I... I’m afraid we don`t yet know, sir. We lost contact with the expeditionary force and thus far haven’t found any deserters or survivors who could report what happened. The only comfort we have right now is that the Dragons have yet to show any aggression.” The sergeant informed. However, merely a few seconds after he finished, a distant roar could be heard.

“Actually, scratch that last one. That sounded like a dragon rallying call and the only documented times they used this were during migrations and when assembling an army.” The sergeant calmly said.

Shining Armor, however couldn’t share his calm. “Everypony, get into position now!” He bellowed at his tired troops. Tired, but well aware of the threat, so even though they were tired, the all took up their positions. When he turned back around, he saw the sergeant still standing by his side with the same stoic gaze he had before.

“I must admit, I admire your calm, sergeant.” He complimented.

“I… feel honoured, that it seems like that to you, s-sir.” He stammered and Shining Armour noticed a certain golden liquid drip down from the rear end of the sergeant’s belly plate.

“Ah…” Shining assessed intelligently. “Well, in all honesty, sergeant, I would probably be doing the same right now, if I hadn’t taken a piss before coming here.”

At that moment, another roar echoed around them. This one was much closer.

“They’re coming!” one of the guards shouted, mere seconds before hundreds of dragons flew over the bastion.

“Quick everypony, get heat shields up!” Shining Armor shouted, casting a shield of his own to hopefully deflect the dragons. However, he was still just as exhausted as his comrades. A few dragons bounced of the purple dome that grew over the Fortress, however not before the dragons could set fire to the gate, rendering it useless until it had completely burnt down, by which point the dragons would likely swarm in and slaughter every single pony inside.

Shining Armor`s mind was racing, trying to find a solution, though the strain from the shield wasn’t exactly making things easier. Normally in such a situation, he would split up his regiment into smaller groups, of which each would have one pony cast a heat shield while the others fired at the dragons. The groups would be spread apart by a few hooves to avoid giving the dragons multiple targets for a single run. However, he didn’t have enough room to pull that off. He chuckled to himself, as he realized that the walls that were meant to protect them were ironically now the one obstacle that might doom them all.

The dragons reinforced their attacks once they had recovered from the sudden appearance of Shining`s shield. The strain of multiple hundred, if not thousand dragons banging against his shield put a severe strain on Shining Armor. He would’ve liked to claim that this was nothing for him, however his body was quick to disprove that. He no longer had the strength to support his own weight. His legs buckled beneath him and he fell to the ground, the sudden impact making his shield flicker just long enough for a few of the dragons to slip through.

“Shield the hospital!” The sergeant ordered from beside Shining. “Everypony who is not shielding or helping the wounded, fight off these damn dragons!”

When he was done shouting orders, the sergeant leaned down to Shining. “Sir, are you okay?” He asked with barely masked concern.

“Could be better.” Shining wheezed. “You take command for now. I have to—BEHIND- ARGH!” Shining tried to warn, but barely managed to get out enough to be understandable.

The sergeant turned around just in time to see a dragon charging towards them. He barely managed to bring up a shield, but the force of the impact threw him backwards anyways… right into Shining Armor.

And within merely a few seconds, the dome shattered and the Dragons swarmed in.

On a hill nearby the outpost, Frosty and the fillies sat, together with their Changeling compatriots and a newcomer. The former guardspony had several burns scattered across his fur and armor, but was still easily identifiable by the rank markings in his chestplate. The colonel stood beside Frosty and looked into the direction of the battle, although he didn’t seem to look at anything in particular.

The battle in the distance went on, but Frosty and the fillies didn’t seem to be interested in it at first. Only when the shield fell did they turn their attention to it.

“Finally. I was starting to think that they actually might win.” Scootaloo commented, as she and Applebloom dropped their little card game.

“Ah actually thought the dragons might just leave ‘em and move on.” Applebloom said next.

“Let’s just be glad that it worked out thus far. At least, we’re over the hardest part now.” Frosty said. “Now we just have to wait a bit for the carnage to spread and then jump in. Shouldn’t be too hard.”

The fillies and changelings behind him nodded in agreement, while the colonel still remained unmoving and stared into the nothingness behind the outpost.

Shining Armor and the few remaining guardsponies found themselves in a rapidly deteriorating situation. Not only had their numbers been cut in half in merely a few minutes, but he was also very tired and injured.

The sergeant had taken the brunt of the dragon’s attack which shielded Shining enough to give him enough room to escape. Sadly, the sergeant had bought this chance with his life.

The dragons had swarmed the bastion immediately after Shining’s shield broke down and had been slowly herding them into a small circle in the centre of the bastion. Shining was trying to find a weak spot in their line, but thus far was unsuccessful, which was hardly surprising, given his dazed state.

Once they all were herded together the dragons stopped their advance for a moment. Shining was about to ask what was going on, when a giant shadow blocked out the sun over him and an earth-shaking impact occurred right in front of him.

The largest dragon he had ever seen now stood in front of him.

Torch chuckled darkly, as he looked upon the feeble remains of the former bastion and its inhabitants. The few survivors that were there were herded into a single spot in the middle and were surrounded by his dragons.

Among those few was one that immediately caught his attention and plastered a big smile across his face.

“Well well, if it isn’t the captain of the royal equestrian guard. What a wonderful first trophy for my revenge.” Torch chuckled.

To say Shining Armor was not intimidated by this encounter would’ve been a blatant lie. However, that didn’t mean that he didn’t have some last remnants of fatigue-induced courage – and probably stupidity – left inside him.

“Cease your actions at once, dragonspawn! In the name of the Crown, I hereby put you under arrest!” He shouted, though he immediately noticed that his words were not really causing anything, but make the dragons around him laugh.

“You, put me under arrest? Heh, I want to see you try… after I’ve taken revenge.” Torch laughed. “You vile equestrians have murdered my daughter, so now I shall destroy your entire Kingdom!” He roared.

“What?! An equestrian would NEVER murder—“

“LIES! I myself have found the corpse of my daughter with an equestrian spear embedded in her chest. I myself have slain the murderers as they tried to flee! Now, prepare to—”

Torch was cut off by one of his dragons quickly flying up to him and bowing down.

“Your Highness, we have a problem!” He quickly said.

“Silence! Who dares interrupting me when I am about to kill my foe?! And what is that about a problem?!”

The dragon flinched back quite a bit, but nevertheless continued his report. “Sir, something is fighting itself through our lines. We are being pushed back!”

“WHAT?!” Torch roared, turning around and seeing that the dragon lines were indeed quickly dwindling.

Shining Armor was also looking past the dragon lord, through the masses of dragons and saw that more and more of them turned around to fight another unseen foe.

The lines seemed to thin out slowly, to the point where Shining could finally catch some glimpses of what was going on. His eyes went wide, when he saw his dead comrades stand up again and fight the dragons with even more prowess than before. It seemed that they had suddenly been infused with the raw power of an alicorn, while simultaneously losing their instinct for self-preservation.

Suddenly, he saw something jump over the dragon lines and towards them. He was just about to strain himself once more to try and erect another shield, when he identified the silhouette over him to be equine.

He had barely enough time to realize this and step back, before a gold-clad pony landed with its back to him and cast a dome shield around them.

“It’s the colonel!”

“The colonel is back!”

“The colonel has come to save us!”

Shining Armor heard the ponies of the original garrison cry out in relief. With more than just a little suspicion, he moved up to the ‘colonel’. “Colonel, I want an immediate report on where you have been!”

No reaction.

“Colonel, I believe you are fully capable to talk while casting, so answer right now!”

Again, no reaction.

“Colonel, cease your disrespect and answer, for Celestia’s sake!” Shining Armor shouted angrily, shaking the colonel - or at least trying to. However, no matter how hard he shoved, the colonel didn’t move and when he went up to look him in the face, he saw… that there was nothing. No strain, no sadness, no joy, no fear, just… a face. A mere picture, an emotionless depiction of the pony he once was, frozen in a completely calm and unfocused stare. Shining Armor followed that stare and through the legs of the dragon king, he saw that behind the lines of his fallen comrades, there were four hooded figures walking through the formation as if they were walking through the streets of Canterlot.

“You!” Torch roared. “What in the—Argh!” Was all he managed to say, before the leading pony of the four cast an unknown spell and shot it at the dragon. Torch clutched his heart and stumbled a bit, before he fell down crushing the gatehouse underneath him. He was dead.

His subjects saw this and those who were not engaged by Shining’s former brothers and sisters in arms tried to fly away, however seemingly just died mid-air and fell to the ground. The line of risen guardsponies worked its way around the dome shield, killing off the dragons one by one, while those who tried to flee were killed by whatever spell the hooded figures were using. It didn’t take long, until every last dragon present was a mere body in an endless sea of corpses.

When the battle was won, the ‘colonel’ dropped the shield and guards that were outside of it formed up beside the hooded figures. Now that they were all standing still, Shining noticed that, while their facial features seemingly remained untouched, their eyes had become black voids with dots within them, some of which were orange, pink or yellow, but most were purple.

As the turned guards formed up beside them, one of the hooded figures approached Shining Armor, likely their leader. The hood covered most of his face, leaving only a light grey muzzle and white horn sticking out.

“Good Day, Captain Shining Armor.” He greeted in a very coltish voice, making Shining Armor wonder about this pony’s age.

“Stop right there and identify yourself!” He shouted, making him stop. The colt’s mouth displayed a short moment of shock, though if it was genuine, Shining couldn’t be certain.

“My my, no need to be hostile. I don’t intend to be a threat.” The colt said.

“But you are aware that you are. Identify yourself now or I will be forced to detain you!” Shining Armor threatened.

“Oh, I doubt that would work… but since I need to reveal myself anyways, I suppose I will humor you… on the condition that, no matter who or what I turn out to be, you will not act hostile towards us.”

“Which implies that you might yet be hostile. I cannot trust you this way! And why would we want to give up our initiative anyways?”

“Oh, captain, I assure you that I am not hostile, however, you might perceive me as such.” The colt said cryptically.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Shining Armor cut in.

“Oh, you’ll see. As for the initiative: If you were to act hostile, I would have to defend myself, which, as evidence might show, would be an inadvertently lethal outcome for you.” The colt said, pointing at the corpses that surrounded the group.

Shining Armor formed an ‘o’ with his mouth, as he looked around and then back at his very tired comrades, who even if this colt was not seemingly omnipotent were still no longer able to fight either way.

“Alright, then I agree to your terms.” Shining Armor finally said.

“Splendid.” The colt said with what sounded like genuine happiness, before throwing back his hood.

The survivors, including Shining Armor, gasped as they saw that the colt that had saved them was none other than the banished Frozen Blood.

“You… you are…!” Shining Armor stammered.

“Yes, I am Frozen Blood. It feels strange to be saved by the one whom your orders require you to see as your enemy, doesn’t it?” Frosty joked. “Jokes aside, I am very sorry that we didn’t arrive any sooner. I hope your losses aren’t too great.”

Shining Armor looked back at his wounded comrades and let his head hang. “Well, I mean, at least there are still a few left. Those dragons really beat us—nonono, wait wait wait!” He suddenly shouted, shaking his head. “I’m not falling for that, you are THE Frozen Blood that was banished because he was a threat to Equestria as a whole!”

“And what was that assessment based on?” Frosty asked.

“Well… it was because…” Shining Armor tried to recall. Thus far he never had the need to question his orders, so out of habit he just didn’t.

“Because I am a Necromancer.” Frosty finished for him.

“Yeah, that was it! You have strayed from the oath of harmony by employing vile black magic!” Shining Armor bellowed.

“Not by choice.” Frosty answered simply.

“… Come again?”

Frosty didn’t answer verbally at first, instead lifting his cloak and showing his Cutie Mark. “I haven’t learned Necromancy, but was born with it. I have tried to learn normal magic as much as I could before my banishment and when I used necromancy, I only did so for either self-defence or for other good reasons. You can actually ask Rainbow Dash about that.”

“Uhuh, so you claim that Celestia banished you for no reason?” Shining Armor questioned.

“Oh, I am very certain that she had her reasons. I just think that she acted a bit… prematurely. Maybe she had some unpleasant interactions with other necromancers?” Frosty offered.

“Prematurely or not, you have still been banished, so right now, you are trespassing on our territory.” Shining Armor noted.

“Actually, after I was banished, I went to the dragon lands and since the dragons just conquered the lands between here and their homeland and you haven’t formally retaken it, no, I am not trespassing.” Frosty answered smugly.

“Wait, you went into the dragon lands?! So you have caused all this?!!” Shining Armor shouted angrily.

“No, I haven’t caused it. However, I have seen it from afar and prevented it as much as I could.” Frosty said with an undertone of regret.

“Oh yeah? Then who do you say was the cause of all this?!”

Wordlessly, Frosty pointed to the colonel, who still stood unmoving by Shining’s side.

“The colonel? And why would he do that? Actually, colonel, where did you come from?” Shining asked, yet again getting no response.

“I’m afraid he won’t answer, Captain.” Frosty said, before swiping his hoof and making the colonel turn around. Immediately, Shining Armor noticed that he had the same purple eyes as the other fallen guards.

“You… you killed him?!” Shining Armor shouted, which was echoed by angry shouts from behind him.

“No, I didn’t. The dragons did, after he had invaded their lands and killed their princess. I had merely turned him, in the hopes of using him to lure the dragons away. Sadly that didn’t work as planned.” Frosty claimed.

“Aha, and why would I trust you? For all I know, you could very well just try to start a war between Equestria and the dragons.” Shining Armor argued.

“Then why would I completely overthrow my own plan by eliminating the dragon invasion force?” Frosty countered.

“I-I’m sure that you would have a reason… even if it all sounds a bit strange, I can’t just believe you like that.” Shining Armor said, seemingly finally wavering in his confidence.

“Do you remember what Torch said earlier?” Frosty asked.

“What? That with the equestrian spear? I mean, it could very well be planted evidence.” Shining answered.

“He also said that he had already dealt with the murderers.” Frosty said.

“Yeah, he did, but what—“ Shining started, but stopped, when Frosty pointed at the colonel. Specifically, at his charred armor and burned fur. Shining stared for a moment, then it seemingly clicked and he slowly covered his eyes in a gesture of shock and disgust.

“Yeah, I think now you understand.” Frosty said. “Well, while you digest that information, I think we should clean this place up a little.” He then said, before he and his three followers used their necromancy to rapidly deteriorate the dragon corpses and once that was done, they also released all of the dead guards - including the colonel – from their grasp. Their armours and equipment clattered, as one by one, the bodies fell to the ground.

“I left the bodies of your comrades, so you can give them a proper funeral. Again, I am very sorry that we weren’t here earlier.” Frosty apologized again.

“Oh, don`t be. We are all happy that you came at all, though… please, remove the colonel from here. I simply cannot allow even a single atom of this filth to stain Equestria even more.” Shining Armor said with disgust.

Frosty nodded and let the colonel rise again. Then, with a short flick of his head, he ordered him to run towards the dragon lands.

“Thanks.” Shining Armor said. “I just… I can’t believe that a pony like him would just do something like that.”

“So do I. In fact, I very much doubt that all this was just his own doing.” Frosty said.

“What do you mean with that now?”

“I mean that, if it really was just him acting out of his own interest, then he would have likely only had a few accomplices, but when he marched into the dragon lands, he had a whole battalion with him.” Frosty claimed.

Shining thought for a moment. He hadn’t really thought about it, but the emergency call did say something about equestrian expeditionary forces inside the dragon lands.

“So… you are suggesting that this was actually Celestia’s doing and that she tried to start a war with the dragons?” Shining Armor summarized.

“Not necessarily Celestia herself, but at least somepony with a lot of power.” Frosty corrected.

Shining Armor was tapping his chin in thought, seemingly contemplating his further moves.

“In any case, it was a pleasure to meet you, captain. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we sadly have to return to our exile.” Frosty said, offering Shining Armor a hoof, which he bumped after a short moment.

“Yeah, nice to meet you too. You don’t seem like too bad of a guy, maybe I can convince the princesses to revert your exile.” Shining Armor offered.

“That would be very kind, yes. Thank you. Until then, I guess we will try to make our way to the southern countries and try to settle in there. Good bye.” Frosty said, before turning around and leaving the bastion.

“Yes, good bye and good luck!” Shining shouted after them.

“Sir, what do we do now?” The mare from earlier asked.

“Well, I guess we should look into this matter a little. He mentioned Rainbow Dash, so I suppose visiting Ponyville and the Element Bearers would be a good first step to confirm his story. After that… well, that depends on what the elements say.” Shining Armor said, before gloomily looking around at the remains of the bastion and the bodies of his fallen comrades.

“I guess we should first bury our comrades, though. We can’t just leave them to decay like that.” He then said and the mare nodded in sad agreement.

The day after the battle, Twilight Sparkle had finally managed to trace Frosty’s steps to the dragon border.

She was following the same road that Frosty used, when she spotted smoke rising up in the distance. A few hundred hooves further down the road, she then realized with horror, that the bastion that protected the border to the dragon lands was severely damaged.

She went into full gallop and finally reached the gates of the bastion… only that there were no more gates. The gatehouse was completely destroyed and the walls, tents and structures inside were severely damaged. And then, there were the mounds. Small dirt hills in the base, some with small wooden crosses and guard armor on them and some without.

Graves? Maybe some with identified bodies and the others without? And then, there was that larger mound right at the gate. A mass grave, perhaps? Twilight looked over the outpost with shock, unable to believe what she was seeing.

“Oh no…” she mumbled to herself. “I… I am too late…”

Author's Note

And the tale of our dearest little necromancer finally continues. :yay:

Investigation and Revisitation

The day after the battle with the dragons took place, four foals and two changelings found themselves wandering the Everfree Forest, yet again. They had taken a longer route through the south, to ensure that potential scouts sent after them by Shining Armor wouldn’t see them breaking their promise, before turning west and then north again, just before reaching the Badlands.

“But don’t you think it’s still risky, considering that Shining Armor should be in Ponyville right now?” Sweetie Belle asked as she walked alongside Frosty.

“Possibly, yes. However, there is one thing that I need to retrieve before we make our next step” Frosty answered.

The group had wandered northward for a few hours, until they had found the trail that they had originally taken to get to the dragon lands and were now following it back to where their house once stood.

“Ah still dunno why ya didn’t jus’ let us eat his life. Ah mean, why bother keepin’ him alive when killin’ him woulda been much safer?” Applebloom asked, still sounding a bit disappointed that she didn’t get to taste pony life force yet.

“Ah yes, while it might look a bit like that would’ve been easier, it would’ve actually caused far more trouble than I think it’s worth.” Frosty said. “Consider this: you are Princess Celestia…”

The three fillies gagged at that.

“… and you send none other than the Captain of your Guard - THE Captain of your guard – to investigate an incident at the dragon border. You expect him to report back sometime, but he doesn’t and the following battlegroup you send finds a pile of dead dragons and guardsponies, the captain among them. It would likely immediately stick out to you that you haven`t heard about any dragon attacks, other than that one, but the amount of corpses definitely comes up to a whole dragon army – not to mention that the dragon king himself was among the bodies. Don’t you think that would raise some red flags?” Frosty concluded.

“In that case, we could’ve just drained their bodies like we’ve done this time!” Scootaloo pointed out.

“Maybe. However, I’d say that nothing but a pile of small mounds and one big one is even more suspicious in this case, than just a pile of corpses.” Frosty explained. He chuckled briefly and smiled down at the fillies, who were still giving him curious looks.

These curious looks were one of the many reasons why he had come to love them so much.

“That and there is actually quite a lot of use in keeping him alive. You see: while Celestia is the universally accepted ruler and patron of Equestria, I don’t have that luxury. It would likely be an easy task to get into the palace and take the crown by force, however in all likelihood, that would make the ponies pretty mad and they would eventually defect. The best way to keep them from doing so is to keep certain ponies and institutions in place and get them on our side. The military is one of them.”

The fillies ‘aaah’-d together and seemed satisfied with the answer. Of course, Frosty greatly oversimplified things in his explanation, but if it was enough for the fillies, he was fine with it.

They reached the location of their former hut and its charred remains. Applebloom had to fight back tears when she saw it, but held strong. Frosty almost felt sorry for coming back here, but there was actually a reason for this.

While Sweetie and Scoots were comforting Applebloom, Frosty was walking away, behind the ruins, where a barely noticeable hole in the earth caught his attention. He widened it and looked down to where several enchantments protected a small, glowing rock far below ground. Frosty looked at it for a moment and smiled, when he recalled that this had originally been a gift he had gotten by the fillies.

Shining Armor and the remainders of his regiment reached Ponyville a few hours after they had buried their fallen comrades and left the outpost. Of course, the Ponyvillians were initially a bit confused about their presence. However, beyond taking a look or two at them, most ponies ignored them and went about their day. After all, Ponyville has become known for a plethora of oddities in recent history, so the Royal Guard showing up was actually just a minor event.

Shining Armor didn’t really care about the Ponyvillians either, as he currently had a few things to do: first, he went to knock at his sister’s door and got no answer at first. However, just when Shining was about to kick the door in, Spike opened it.

“Oh, hey Shining. Decided to stop by for a visit, eh?” Spike greeted.

“Hey, Spike. Yeah, kinda did. Is Twilight here? I need to ask her something.” Shining asked.

“Uhh, sorry, but she’s left the day before yesterday. Said she had to follow Frosty and… actually I don’t know. She was already running by that point, so I only caught a few snippets that don’t really make sense.” Spike recalled, making Shining chuckle a little.

“Yeah, that sounds like Twily… wait, ‘Frosty’? Who’s that supposed to be?” Shining Armor noticed, asking though he already had a good guess to who this might be.

“Umm, yeah, so this is the part that you won’t like…” Spike stalled. The drake shifted uncomfortably in his place and repeatedly poked his clawtips together.

“Let me guess: This ‘Frosty’ is the Necromancer, Frozen Blood.” Shining said indifferently, making Spike wince slightly.

“Uhh, yeah... that’s… kinda the case.” Spike said hesitantly.

“Ah, okay then. At least that validates part of his story.” Shining noted, before taking a look around.

“Wait, does that mean you’ve talked to him? How?! I mean isn’t he in exile or something?” Spike asked, slightly confused over what his Brother was saying.

Shining was still looking around while answering. It seemed that something about the ponies around him didn’t match up with him.

“Uh, yeah, he still is. It’s just that we had an incident at the dragon border a few hours ago and this Frozen Blood saved our flanks. He’s actually the reason why we’re here.” He answered in a slightly mumbled tone. He then turned back around to his brother and briefly changed the subject.

“Say, what’s going on with these ponies? Normally, when I would say Frozen Blood’s name anywhere else in Equestria, all eyes would immediately be on me. However, here in Ponyville, they all seem… indifferent to it.” Shining noted.

“Yeah, that’s because the ponies here view Frosty a lot differently than the rest of Equestria. You see: we all know Frosty since before all that Necromancer… stuff. Before all that, Frosty has actually been a very well-respected colt down here. Heck, I’d even go as far as calling him a Town Hero.” Spike recalled.

Shining Armor nodded to himself. Thus far, what Frosty’s told him seemed to be right. “Ah, ok. And may I ask what he has done to earn such high credit?” Shining inquired further.

“Well, for one, he saved the Town from an Ursa a while ago. Then he saved Rainbow during the best young flyers and THEN, the Crusaders were kidnapped and he saved them.” Spike recounted, counting Frosty’s deeds off on his claws.

“Oh really? What happened during the Best Young Flyers? This is the first time I hear that there was an incident.” Shining wondered.

“Uh, well… okay, let’s start from the beginning: We all came to encourage Rainbow during the Best Young Flyers Competition, but since we normally can’t walk on clouds, Twilight wanted to give all of us magical wings, but after she cast them on Rarity, she noticed that the Mana drain was too much to cast it on all of us. Luckily, she remembered that cloudwalking spell she had lying around, so she cast that one instead. We then all flew up there in the hot air balloon that we originally used to fly down here from Canterlot.

So, well, fast forward an hour or so, we sit in the cloudoseum (heheh) and wait for Rainbow’s turn, when Rarity suddenly flies up and shows off her magical wings. However, since they were made from magic and vapour, they quickly disintegrated once she went too high and left her to fall all the way down. The wonderbolts tried to save her, but she uhh… kinda kicked them all unconscious in her panic. Anyways, Rainbow came after them next and did that Rainboom-thing. However, just when she came back up and dropped them off, her wings cramped up and she fell herself. Frosty immediately dove after her and somehow managed to get her back up using magic, but he himself fell completely down.” Spike recounted.

“What, really?!” Shining exclaimed in awe. “How did he survive that?”

“Yeah, that’s where it gets weird. You see: when we found him down there, he was completely unharmed. He told us that he had barely managed to use a parachute spell to slow his fall and the treetops then did the rest, however he would’ve taken severe injuries from that. From what I heard from Twilight, Necromancers can restore their entire body, as long as they have energy left. That would mean that the most likely scenario we have is, that he actually died back there and only came back, because he is a Necromancer. Thing is, in all honesty I think that him jumping to his death to save Rainbow makes it a lot more heroic and I guess most of Ponyville thinks that too.” Spike concluded.

“Wow, that sounds… quite amazing, actually.” Shining said in awe.

“Heh, damn right, it does! Wait until Rainbow comes here and tells you the whole story. Actually…” Spike looked behind him at a clock and when he had confirmed the time, he nodded to himself and held up three claws. “Alright, you might want to step aside for a moment.

2 claws.

Shining Armor raised an eyebrow at his younger brother. “Eh… why?”

1 claw.

“You’ll see.” Spike said.

“Ok—”

Just when Spike lowered his last claw, Shining heard a female voice above him call out.

“WATCH OUT DOWN THERE!!!”

Only a few moments later, he felt how the wind got knocked out of him and he got thrown off his hooves and skidded along the ground in front of the library.

When they had finally stopped, Shining Armor groggily opened his eyes and saw a cyan Pegasus mare with a rainbow-coloured mane lie atop him. She groaned and groggily rubbed her head.

“Uhh, sorry about that, I uhh…” She then opened her eyes as well and looked at him.

When she laid eyes upon him, her expression turned to surprise and then to a seductive smirk.

“Hey handsome, you come here often?” She asked seductively, still lying atop Shining.

“Uh, no, not really. I’m actually just here to visit my sister. I assume, you would be Rainbow Dash, then?” Shining answered calmly. When they got together, Cadence had made sure that he would never be drawn to any mare other than her.

“Heh, the one and only. Seems like I’m already quite famous in… euh, wherever you come from.” She said.

“Uhh, actually my brother and I were just talking about you.” Shining said, pointing to the library door.

“Your brother?” Rainbow asked and turned around, likely hoping to see another handsome colt. Instead, she just saw Spike standing behind her and waving at her.

“Hi, Rainbow.” He greeted indifferently.

“Heya, Spike… wait, Spike’s your brother?” Rainbow suddenly realized, jerking back around to the stallion beneath her.

“Yes. Now, if you’d please get off me, that would be quite helpful.” Shining said.

Rainbow immediately jumped off of the stallion and looked at Shining rather warily.

“So, that makes you her brother as well, huh?” She asked rhetorically.

“If with ‘her’, you’re referring to my sister, then you are correct, yes.” Shining confirmed.

Rainbow looked Shining over a few times, of course immediately noticing the armour and rank insignia.

“You’re a guard, huh? Didn’t know Twilight had family in such high positions.” Rainbow noted coldly.

“That sounded like you have a problem with the guard. Is there anything you’re hiding, miss Dash?”

“Eh, don’t take it too badly. She had a little bit of a falling-out with Twilight over Frosty. Twilight is the only one in all of Ponyville who actually believes the princess that he is a threat.” Spike said a bit disappointedly.

“Wait, so she is currently going after him? That’s why she’s away?”

“I don’t know. Like I said, I only caught snippets of what she said when she left.” Spike pointed out.

“Yeah, she’s off to find Frosty. I’ve heard the judges speak about Celestia turning up after her trial and I bet she told her something that killing him is the only way or something.” Rainbow said.

“And you’d say that that’s wrong?” Shining Armor asked Rainbow, waiting for her reaction.

“Heck yeah I would! That colt is a hero AND a saint! He is almost as awesome as I am and that’s almost impossible!” Rainbow exclaimed. “That colt even saved my life in exchange for his own, for crying out loud!”

“Alright, that confirms Frozen Blood’s story at least for the most part. Still, I’ll probably need some more.” Shining assessed, after making some mental notes about the similarities in their stories. No disparities thus far, so if it wasn’t rehearsed or something, it was likely the truth.

“Wait, what? Frozen Blood’s story? You’ve met Frosty?” Rainbow asked in astonishment.

“Yep. He helped us out on the dragon border, when they attack and almost wiped us out. He told me to come here, if I wanted more information and more information I certainly got.” Shining said. Rainbow’s mouth gaped open for a moment, not sure if she should cheer or be concerned, that somepony outside of Ponyville finally believed them, that Frosty wasn’t a villain.

“However, I’d very much like to see all sides of this. We should probably hear what the other elements have to say on this as well.” Shining stated.

“Hey, no problem, I can just go fetch them! You’ll see, they’re gonna be here in ten seconds flat!” Rainbow said quickly, suddenly full of enthusiasm. She had apparently decided that having somepony from outside who believed them was first and foremost a good thing.

“Yes, that would be very helpful.” Shining said, just before Rainbow zoomed off. He doubted the mare had even heard what he had said. It seemingly was enough that he had said anything at all.

“Okay… yeah, we better get everything set up while she’s gone. Spike, go fetch a quill and some parchment, there’s probably gonna be a lot to write down.”

Spike saluted quickly and slipped back inside to prepare. Shining followed him, setting foot into Twilight`s Library for the first time. However, he did not take the time to look around, as he knew he had a lot of work ahead of him. So many questions that needed to be answered:

How could somepony be born with Necromancy?

Why was Celestia so obsessed with destroying Frosty?

What does Twilight have to do with this? After all, Celestia could likely just go after Frosty herself.

In short: What in the world was going on?

A Spark before Sunrise

While Shining Armor busied himself with the Element bearers, Frosty had crawled into the crystal caves and with the help of Sweetie Belle located a magic storing gem that could quickly dispense its stored magic.

Their quest to the caves was rather uneventful. In fact, it was so uneventful that Applebloom and Scootaloo almost fell asleep while walking with them – and that even though they are undead and technically didn’t even need sleep anymore.

After they had found the gems, they took two of them and then headed back… to the dragon lands, to the great confusion of the fillies. They tried asking Frosty about it, but he seemed strangely secretive about this. However, each time they asked brought a small, childish smile to his face.

They spent another few hours on the road, before finally arriving back at the former bastion. Once there, Frosty immediately bolted past the many graves that now littered the whole area and ran right into a large tent that stood close to the smaller tents that the guardsponies likely slept in.

When the fillies and the changelings caught up to him, they found that the tent was the field kitchen and that Frosty was currently rummaging through the kitchen utensils, until he apparently had found what he was looking for.

“AHA!” He shouted triumphantly, as he held up four metal bowls.

“Uhh, Frosty? Was this the sole reason why we came back here?” Sweetie Belle asked with a slight undertone of annoyance. The other two shared her annoyance and didn`t really bother to hide it.

“It was one of the reasons, yes. Another was this.” Frosty said, holding up a bundle of wire.

“We coulda jus’ gone to Barnyard Bargains if ya needed kitchen supplies, y’know?” Applebloom pointed out.

“Isn’t it a bit weird to plan for a kitchen when there isn’t even a house anymore?” Scootaloo commented beside her.

Both of the fillies were sporting slight looks of annoyance, now that they saw what Frosty had come here for.

“Yes, I know. However, going to Barnyard Bargains wasn’t feasible for two reasons: firstly, I didn’t want to be spotted, neither by Shining Armor, nor by anypony else, really. Secondly... the completely barren and almost uninhabited dragon lands are the perfect spot for some… testing.” Frosty said cryptically.

He took one of the Crystals that he had been carrying with him and shot a beam of magic into it. When the Crystal was full, it too shot a beam of magic out of one of its ends. Frosty kept track of the amount of magic needed to get this result and charged the crystal again with only a tiny bit less than before.

The now fully charged crystal glowed purple and it looked a bit like the magic was swimming inside of it like a liquid. However, Frosty didn’t take the time to look at it more than necessary and instead smashed the crystal into the ground. Nothing happened.

Frosty sighed. He had really hoped that simple blunt force would be enough to discharge the crystal, but sadly that wasn’t the case.

He picked the crystal back up from the ground, where it had left a clean imprint of half of a six-sided prism, and sat back on his haunches. He then held the wire onto the Crystal and cast a beam of magic onto it. This time, the crystal discharged.

“Yes, most metals conduct magic. I could’ve told you that.” Sweetie Belle remarked.

“And I could’ve asked you, but experimenting is a lot more fun, don’t you think?” Frosty countered happily. “Now, would you please give me the glowing rock?”

Upon him asking, Scootaloo opened her wings slightly, so that the rock could fall from under them. Admittedly, that was not the easiest or most comfortable way to carry it, but it was the most secure, as if they were to encounter anypony, they would be far less likely to question them if they didn’t see them running around with a glowing rock.

Frosty took the rock in his magic and put it to the ground. He then carefully used some magic to cut off a small glowing pebble from the larger rock and placed inside one of the bowls. Next up, he took another bowl of about the same size and some wire and, with the help of some heat magic taught by Twilight, welded the ends of three strands of wire onto the inner bottom of the bowl.

He charged the crystal with some magic and then placed it between the three wires, which he then used to affix the crystal to the bowl. Lastly, he attached the glowing pebble to the open end of the crystal by just binding it onto there with another wire and then put the bowls top-on-top and welded them together to get a roughly spherical metal container, into which he scratched a marking on the side that had the crystal attached.

“Great.” Frosty said, when he finished welding the sphere. “Now, with the help of some cartoon logic, this will hopefully work.”

“Cartoon logic? Frosty, you still haven’t told us what we’re doing here!” Sweetie protested.

“And I don’t plan on telling you.” Frosty said, getting three sad ‘awwww’s in response. “Instead, I’ll show you.” He said and teleported everypony and ‘ling present, plus their luggage somewhere into the dragonlands… where the former colonel of the bastion was currently pushing head first into a canyon. Sadly, even though he now had the strength of an undead, he was still too weak to push through several kilometres of solid rock.

“Hey, it’s the colonel! Didn’t you send him off somewhere into the… oh.” Scootaloo said, quickly realizing where they were now.

“Yes, I did indeed. Now, originally I didn’t think I’d have any more use for him, but now… Colonel, take this and run a mile or two back that way. When you’re there hold this over your head, with that scratched marking facing our way.” Frosty ordered, levitating the prepared sphere over to the colonel and pointing him into the barren wasteland that lay behind them.

The colonel turned around and ran in the pointed direction, keeping the sphere levitating beside him. It took him a few minutes, but eventually he reached the ordered two miles and when he did, he turned back around and lifted the sphere up, with the marked side facing Frosty and his group.

“Perfect. Now, my ladies, please brace yourself for this is going to be very turbulent.” Frosty announced, before readying himself.

The fillies and changelings quickly dove behind a few rocks for cover and when he saw that his fillies were somewhat safe, he unleashed a few magic beams, trying to hit the sphere. In hindsight, it would’ve probably been easier to just let the colonel do it, but in hindsight one always knows better.

Finally, one shot hit the sphere and the reaction was imminent. A bright flash blinded everypony and changeling for a few seconds, quickly followed by a wave of tremendous pressure and scorching heat.

Frosty had severely underestimated the power of the bomb, especially since he didn’t take the flat terrain and hot weather into account. The fillies and he had to expend a lot of energy to keep their bodies intact, while also keeping the changelings ‘alive’. Finally, after a few seconds, the heat and pressure died down and allowed them to take a better look at what had just happened.

The colonel was no longer to be seen and neither was the terrain around him. The whole area had just been transformed into a massive crater in the middle of the desert that seemingly was highly radioactive. Frosty noticed this, as he was subconsciously still using up energy to repair unseen wounds, which were most likely the molecular alterations caused by said radiation.

“YES! That worked!” Frosty cheered. “Fillies and Gentlelings, you’ve just witnessed the creation of the nuclear bomb!”

The fillies meanwhile stood there with their mouths agape in silent awe. Scootaloo was the first to get out of this state and excitedly jumped around.

“YEAH! That was AWESOME! Can we do that again? Please?” Scootaloo begged.

“Yeah, that was impressive. There isn’t anything left of the colonel, though. Isn’t a bomb as destructive as this one kinda unfeasible for us, since we get stronger by eating our enemies lifeforce?” Sweetie Belle pointed out.

“Which we kinda can’t do when they’re gone?” Applebloom added.

“Yes, you two are indeed right with that, at least when looking at it purely from the perspective of a necromancer.” Frosty answered, still a bit shaky from the excitement and earlier nervousness. “However, as somepony who would like to conquer Equestria, there is actually a particular group… or rather a particular race that is worth more dead than undead to me.”

After saying that, Frosty turned over to Pharynx, who was neutrally looking at the small mushroom cloud that was rising into the sky.

“Pharynx?”

“Yes my lord?” The changeling answered.

“Can you lead us to your old queen’s hive?”

Twilight had barely recovered from seeing the impaled blue dragoness and her completely lacerated companions, when she felt the earth shake and heard a loud blast in the distance and when she looked in the direction it came from, she saw a big black mushroom-shaped cloud rise into the sky.

‘What in the name of Celestia was that?!’ She thought to herself, before running back towards equestrian territory.

When she finally reached the origin point of the blast, whoever caused it was long gone. However, what they left was still enough to leave a mark not only in her mind, but also in the surrounding terrain.

There was a sizeable crater beneath the cloud and several of the surrounding rocks appeared to have partially melted. The crater also didn’t seem like a normal crater from an impact or an explosion. Normally such a crater would have the dirt that was thrown out pile up on the edge, creating high walls. This one, however, looked like somepony just scooped the crater out of the ground and took the taken dirt o who-knows-where.

Twilight had to get a closer look! She put up every shield spell she knew, just in case there was still some kind of lurking gas or chemicals or maybe even spells, and then slowly advanced towards the hole.

When she reached the crater edge, Twilight had to suppress a gasp, when she actually realized the size of the crater. Not only that, but the bottom of it seemed to be molten in some places meaning that, whatever had caused this was tremendously hot.

She walked around the crater a few times, measuring the circumference in her head and coming up with numbers that she refused to believe, even though her subconscious told her that it was true.

Conflicting thoughts weren’t the only thing she found though. She also found what looked like five sets of hoofprints that were leading back into equestrian territory, although slightly angled towards the south.

‘Hmmm… an explosion of this magnitude likely kicked up a lot of dust. That means that these hoofprints had to be made after the explosion, maybe even by the ponies who caused this! Actually, I think I have a pretty good guess on who caused this…’ Twilight thought to herself, before setting out to follow the trail that Frosty and his group had left.

Author's Note

Also sorry for the delay, we had some... slight difficulties during editing.

Sunrise over the Badlands

Shining Armor sighed, as he exited the Library. He had spent the past day or two writing, organizing and evaluating the stories that he got from the Element Bearers and, after that, pretty much all of Ponyville.

Apparently, Spike’s statement was no exaggeration in the slightest. Most of the statements were very much in favour of Frosty, with only very few of them mentioning some minor things that – from what Shining had gathered from most statements – had come through him joining a group called the ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders’. While by no means a threat on their own, they tended to get themselves and everypony close to them into trouble through their foolish actions.

It was also noted on multiple occasions that all members of this group are foals.

It took a moment for Shining to realize this, but when he finally put all the reports he received from the local guard station into this context, then the lack of any record regarding such a group suddenly made a lot more sense.

Beyond Frosty being what seemed like a town hero, Shining also noticed that Celestia had a similar or rather the exact opposite situation in this town. Most of the statements about her were rather negative with only a few citizens showing some kind of understanding for her actions.

Turns out Ponies get rather pissed when one does something that could’ve killed them all.

“So… what are you gonna do now?” Spike asked him, parchment and quill still in claw, just in case his brother had more to be written down.

“Actually… I don’t really know. I guess I came here with hopes that Frozen Blood’s story might be a lie after all… I guess it is very much true.” Shining mumbled more to himself than to Spike.

“Well, then why don’t you try doing something about it? I mean you are the Captain of the Guard! Somepony is bound to listen to you, right? You could ask Cadence for help!” Spike offered.

“I’d rather not drag Cady into this yet. Currently, I only know that Frozen Blood—“

“Frosty.” Spike cut in.

“… Alright, Frosty – Currently I only know that Frosty didn’t lie about the things here in Ponyville. What I don’t know is what exactly happened between him and the Princess. Surely there has to be some kind of a feud between the two that would explain what she did.” Shining Armor mused. Despite having found Frosty`s story to be true, he still refused to fully believe it. After all, he still was the Captain of the Royal Guard and therefore absolutely loyal to the princess.

“So then what will you do instead? You can’t just wait around until something happens!” Spike demanded.

“I will go to Canterlot. The princesses are waiting for my report on the dragon incident anyways and once I’m there, I can look into the closer connections the princesses held. As far as I know, princess Celestia has recently opened public access to a book written by Starswirl the Bearded about the princess’s early lives. Maybe I can find some answers in there.” Shining thought aloud.

“Or you could, you know, just ask Cadence?” Spike offered with his arms crossed. It seemed the Drake didn’t like how Shining just shot him down earlier when he mentioned her.

“Cadence is currently… eh… a difficult topic. She’s currently abroad anyways, so I don’t really want to bother her.” Shining Armor said sheepishly, obviously hiding something.

“And why would she be a ‘difficult topic’?” Spike pushed.

“Ehhh, well, it could be that we had some kind of a… falling out.” He mumbled, sitting on his haunches and insecurely bumping his forehooves together.

“A falling out? Really? What were you arguing about?” Spike asked curiously.

“We uuh, I…” Shining stammered, before looking around to check if anypony was there with them that could listen in. When he saw that they were alone, he whispered into his brother’s ear.

“I finally proposed to her.”

Spike was so shocked from the news, he almost fell over and when he caught himself, he immediately cheered: “Dude, that’s fantastic!”

Shining, however, hushed him, seemingly trying to keep it secret.

“Not so loud!” He whisper-shouted. “I don’t want it to become public just yet. We don’t even know, when or where the ceremony will be!”

“Eh, don’t worry about it. But if you finally proposed, then what did you argue about?” Spike asked.

“Well, umm, you see… I kinda just wanted a small ceremony. Like, close friends, family, the princesses and that’s it. Cady, however, wants all the pomp, a grand ceremony, the grand hall of the royal palace, half of equestria present, you know, all the stuff.” Shining said nervously. “And so we kinda had an argument over that, until Cady decided to go on a trip to cool off…”

“Oof.” Spike commented. “That sounds… bad, I guess? But she’ll cool off soon enough – I hope.”

“Yeah, I hope that too… ehehe…” Shining Armor laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. It was quite clear that he felt uncomfortable not only with the wedding plans, but also about the whole Frosty-affair.

“So, uhh, anyways, I’ll be off to Canterlot now. Who knows, maybe I can find something interesting. Even if I can’t, I can still try to make sure that nothing else happens…” Shining Armor said, mumbling the last part to himself. He then got up and trotted to the door.

“Tell Twily I was here, will ya? And while you’re at it, could you please try to convince her to stay home for now, when she comes back?” Shining asked.

“You know her, Shining. Once somethings in her head, she wont stop that easily. I guess I can try, but I can’t promise anything.” Spike said, shaking his head.

“I think that’s all I can ask for. Alright, see ya!”

Spike waved good bye to his brother, as he gathered his ponies outside and led them back to Canterlot. Shining spent the whole trip to Canterlot trying to come up with a plan on what to do next, but no matter how much he thought, Starswirl’s book was the best option he could come up with.

He decided to drop those thoughts and focus on what lay before him. After all, as his old sarge told him, ‘Planning ahead is good, but plan too far and you will quickly find your plans working against you.’

Shining missed him sometimes. But only sometimes.

In the Badlands, a mighty spire dominated the otherwise flat and barren landscape. It was made of a dark and organic-looking substance with many holes in it that opened and closed at seemingly random intervals. Around the structure and moving through the holes, one could see hundreds of small forms milling about.

The inside looked much like the outside – an organic substance that formed walls for gangways and rooms and that had holes in it that would open and close at seemingly random intervals except that inside, there was one hole that didn’t close. It was a giant hole that held ornate double doors that looked like they weighed as much as the entirety of Canterlot. Behind those doors was a large Throne Room, where the Queen of this hive was currently shouting orders at the smaller drones.

“My Queen!” Suddenly a Guard hailed, stopping the endless tirade of sometimes contradicting orders.

“What?! Can’t you see that I’m busy?!” Chrysalis shouted in response.

“Y-Yes, my queen. It’s just that… th-there`s someling that wants to meet you.” The Guard stammered. It was well-known to everyling that those who brought bad news only rarely made it back to their old post.

“What?! Which ‘ling is it that has left their post?!” Chrysalis snarled.

“N-None, m-my Queen. It’s a-a pony foal that’s pulling a cart.” The guard answered.

“What? Then why did you say ‘someling’ and not ‘somepony’?” Chrysalis asked angrily.

“B-Because only Infiltrators learn pony-language, m-my Queen!” The guard answered fearfully.

“Don’t make up such petty excuses! You’re very lucky that I’m in a good mood today. Now get me this foal. Maybe we can put it in a pod or something.” Chrysalis mused and the Guard quickly saluted.

“Yes, my queen!”

However, before the guard could get back to the door, they suddenly swung open and another Changeling loudly announced: ”Make way for Lord Frozen Blood!”

After the shout, a white colt, who pulled a wooden wagon with a small metal sphere on top and who was escorted by a battalion of changelings entered the throne room.

“What in the name of--?! Guards, stop him immediately! GUARDS!!” Chrysalis shouted, however the guards didn’t listen. They were only looking forward with a gaze that seemed literally dead.

“YOU!” Chrysalis shouted, pointing at Frosty. “What have you done to my guards?!”

Frosty dropped the cart and made a few steps forward, smirking at Chrysalis.

“Me? Oh, nothing special, I just, you know, killed them and turned them into marionettes?” He said.

“WHAT?! YOU DARE TAKE MY DRONES FROM ME?! I WILL KILL YOU FOR THIS!!” Chrysalis shouted furiously.

“Oh, quite the shouter, are we? Anyways, I never was one for unnecessarily long stalls. This is farewell, Chrysalis.” Frosty said, preparing and shooting a beam of magic onto the metal sphere… only that the beam never came.

“AHAHA! You foolish colt really though that pony magic would work in MY hive?! HA! You should’ve stayed with your worthless pony parents little colt. Now, prepare to die!” Chrysalis shouted, charging a spell of her own.

‘Ah damn, yeah, I forgot about that.’ Frosty thought, as the beam came and hit him into the chest. He skidded a few meters along the floor and a few of the changelings collapsed to revive him.

When he rose again, Chrysalis seemed more than a little confused… and enraged.

Without any words spoken, she shot another beam at Frosty while screaming in rage. Frosty managed to evade this time, jumping away just before the shot hit the ground and left a black scorch mark.

‘Hmmm, well, if I can’t use my own magic, maybe I can use…’ Frosty thought, before evading another beam and jumping up onto his cart, directly in front of the sphere.

“HOLD STILL, YOU LITTLE PIECE OF--!” Chrysalis shouted, just as she shot another beam.

Frosty evaded again, making the beam hit the sphere dead on and triggering the intended chain reaction.

Outside, on the only raise in the terrain, besides the hive itself, stood three fillies and two Changelings that were talking to one another.

Pharynx was telling the fillies how he became an elite infiltrator and how he and the commander came to the Everfree and to Ponyville, when his story was cut short by a blinding flash.

Their vision went white for a moment and when their vision returned, they could feel a tug on their souls, as Frosty took the energy needed to restore his body from them.

They looked over to the hive and saw that it no longer existed. Instead, in its place was a large mushroom cloud rising into the sky and a smaller, ring-shaped dust cloud was expanding and rapidly closing in on their position, carried by the shockwave that came from the explosion.

An ear-shattering thunder arrived a few seconds before the shockwave, momentarily deafening all five of them.

They managed to dive into cover, before the shockwave arrived, covering everything around them in a thick layer of dust. With it also came storm-like winds that were now raging around the fillies, but luckily died down quickly enough.

Finally, when the storm had died down did Frosty teleport to them. Only that his body seemed to be severely burned. He was missing his legs and part of his body, however the wounds were singed shut so that he couldn’t bleed out.

“K-Kill me.” Frosty pleaded and Sweetie Belle immediately complied by smashing his head under her hoof.

Again, they all felt the tug, as Frosty’s body started to reform. His legs, head and body grew back and the spilled blood evaporated and turned into energy that was given back to Frosty.

Frosty himself quickly stood up again when he was able to and deadpanned at Sweetie.

“Well, good to know that you’ll just smash my head in whenever I’ll ask you to.”

“Of course! We’ll do what you say whenever you say it!” She answered happily. “Even the more… naughty requests.” She purred, swishing her tail back and forth and giving Frosty a seductive look.

“So what’re we gonna do now, Frosty?” Scootaloo asked.

“Now? Now we’re going to prepare for the last step on my list.” He said, walking over to the changelings.

Sweetie Belle pouted at being ignored, while Frosty worked his magic on the commander. To be exact, he gave him a bit more energy, bringing him to the same level as Pharynx.

“Ah, my sincerest thanks, my lord.” The Commander said, giving Frosty a deep bow.

“No need to thank me, euuh… actually what is your name? I just realized that I’ve never really asked you that.” Frosty noticed.

“My name is Carracas, my lord.” He introduced himself. “It’s an honour for me to finally be able to talk with you.

“Umm, Frosty? Why did you give him more energy? Wasn’t it enough that he was a normal zombie already?” Scootaloo asked him.

“Scoots, don’t be so mean to the others, just because you have more power than they have.” Frosty chastised jokingly.

“Yeah yeah, sorry, Carracas. I didn’t mean it that way.” Scootaloo apologized.

“I, uhh, accept your apology, my Queen.” Carracas said, with strong confusion. He was obviously not used to accepting apologies from a queen. Most likely he was only used to giving them.

“Alright, with that out of the way, I think we should get moving now. With such a big explosion, it likely won’t take long for somepony to come here.”

“But where’re we gonna go?” Applebloom asked. “Can’t ya jus’ tell us what yer planning so we can help ya better?” She asked further, growing more and more annoyed over Frosty’s secrecy.

“Yeah yeah, sorry, I’ll fill you all in soon. First we’ll need to get outta here though… and this time we’re going right into the Lion`s den: Onwards, to Canterlot!” Frosty announced and the others repeated after him.

“To Canterlot!”

And after that, Frosty quickly teleported them away.

Twilight couldn’t believe her eyes…

After she had lost the track somewhere in the south-west, she was already close to giving up, when she met a farmpony on the road, who claimed that his cart was stolen by four foals and two insect-like ponies. Any other pony would’ve called him crazy and dismissed his claims, however to Twilight, he had just given her valuable information.

She told him that she would find his wagon and the farmpony told her that they fled due north-west. He then pointed to a cart trail that had the same six sets of hoofprints around it that she had been following up until now.

Sadly, that trail ran cold again as well, when she entered the Badlands. The many sandstorms that plagued the area had long since erased all tracks that she could’ve followed and so, she once again was forced to just blindly march on.

Then, it happened. Another flash of light like that one in the dragon lands, only much, MUCH brighter illuminated the area. Shortly thereafter, an ear-rupturing thunder blasted through the air and the shockwave that followed almost ripped her off her hooves. She was lucky she was standing behind a few large rocks at the time, or she would’ve been sent flying through the air.

When the shockwave had passed, Twilight immediately ran towards the source. She knew that this explosion could only mean that Frosty was close and it was only a matter of time until he would move on and she would lose him again.

However, when she arrived, Frosty was seemingly long gone. She went to the highest point she could find – a small raise in the land, still too small to be called a hill. She looked over the surrounding lands and what she saw shocked her deeply.

A gigantic crater sat only a few kilometres away from her little raise. She didn’t dare get close to it, but from what she could see, this crater was easily multiple kilometres wide. She didn’t have to look inside to imagine what the ground must’ve looked like and she didn’t even dare to imagine, what exactly was here, before the explosion.

She didn’t know what to do anymore. Whatever he had done, Frosty was becoming more and more of a threat. Twilight knew that by this point, it was likely that he had already far surpassed her and that she might not be able to stop him. However, what she could do was warn. She could warn the princesses about what he had done and help them prepare for and maybe even counter whatever spell he might’ve used for this. All she had to do was write to the princesses.

Twilight charged her horn as quickly as she could, though days of chasing Frosty had left her body very exhausted. With the last bit of magic she could muster, she cast a teleport spell and teleported away…

Back to Ponyville.

This paragraph solely exists to make this chapter exactly 100 paragraphs long, please ignore. ;)

Author's Note

A wise man once said: "Don't try to kill your enemy. Convince him to kill himself."
What does that mean, I hear you ask? Well, I guess you'll have to find out. :twilightsmile:

Conspiracies

After he had reported to the princesses, Shining Armor had spent his time in Canterlot to investigate Frosty’s claims… and thus far it didn’t look very good.

He had looked into all the files and reports and thus far had only found a few loosely connected oddities, like a large black spot in the whitetail woods that suddenly appeared after the ‘Best Young Fliers Competition’. There was nothing directly linking these to Frosty, except for what Frosty said himself.

When Shining Armor searched through the archives, specifically through the newly published old documents and diaries of the princesses themselves, he found… nothing. There hadn’t been any earlier encounters with Frosty - at least within the timespan covered by the released documents.

There weren’t any mentions about specific cases of necromancy either, only a broad mention of several cases of Necromancy during the time, all of which seem to have been dealt with relatively quickly. There have been several mentions of a prophecy though, according to which a great necromancer shall once arise in a form, which nopony shall ever expect.

The prophecy does not mention anything that this necromancer would do, nor does it specify what this ‘unexpected form’ would be. He tried to apply this prophecy to Frosty and found that a foal is indeed not what he would expect in such a case… however even if he was said necromancer, that would not necessarily mean that he was bad.

To say that these results left a bad taste in his mouth would be an understatement. He was still loyal to the crown, beyond even his own life, but even he could feel that loyalty waver after the recent events.

These doubtful thoughts plagued him throughout his afternoon patrol when, only a few minutes before shift change, something ripped him out of his thoughts.

It was closing time for most of the stalls and wagons in the central marketplace, so it was entirely normal to see strange figures mill around closed stalls, at least on this time of day. However, if said strange figures are carrying an unconscious mare, then that is alarming even around this time. Thus, when Shining Armor saw two stallions carry said unconscious mare into the alleyways of Canterlot, he was immediately hot on their heels.

They were weaving through the streets like they were only half their apparent weight, making Shining think that these thugs likely did this regularly. Yet, the well-trained guard captain was still too big of a number for them.

He gained on them very quickly and he almost would’ve had them, but then, when he ran after them around a corner, he ran into a small, white pony, who wore a tuxedo and a fedora.

“Ow… sorry, I—Frosty?!” Shining Armor bellowed after seeing, who he actually ran into.

Frosty had been thrown a few meters away, due to being much lighter than the Captain. However, since he was already (un)dead, he didn’t feel any pain despite a quite obviously broken nose.

“Well hello, good captain. What a coincidence, I actually wanted—wait, did you just call me Frosty?” He asked, with a raised eyebrow and a tilted head. He hadn’t expected the Captain to call him that – at least not this quickly.

“Uhh, yeah, I… was in Ponyville recently and it kinda stuck, ehehe…” he said sheepishly, before quickly shaking his head. “But that’s not important right now! What’s important is that you’re supposed to be in exile and you promised to adhere to that!”

“Ah yes, the exile…” Frosty says slowly, almost sullenly. “A lot has happened in these past days, Captain. Things which are too… delicate to be told in public. If you don’t mind, I’d like to invite you to a little talk later on.”

“A little—Frosty, this is not the time for ‘little talks’! Celestia is out for your head and duty commands that I do so as well, but I am also indebted to you and—ARGH!” Shining Armor ruffles his own mane in frustration. “And to top it all off, there’s this damned incident, just when I-- OH CRAP!!”

Shining Armor suddenly remembers why he was in that alley to begin with and starts to run off, but Frosty stops him.

“Don’t worry about those, Captain. That was all just staged.” Frosty assures.

“What?”

“The foalnapping there. The mare was completely aware of what would happen and the ‘thugs’ are among my allies.” Frosty explains. “She will also be joining us tonight. The question is, will you?”

“I? I… I don’t know. I have too many questions right now, like… why did you have to stage something like that?”

Frosty’s friendly expression suddenly drops into a very tired and sad frown. “Well… recently it has become rather lethal to even just semi-openly ally with me, so I had to get creative.”

Shining Armor gasps. “Lethal?! What the tartarus happened?!”

“Like I said, too delicate to be told in public. I will tell at the meeting, though.”

Shining Armor stared at Frosty for a while and then sighed. “Okay, when and where?”

Frosty smiled at his apparent success. “Sir Safe Count`s Mansion, tonight at 10pm sharp.”

“Sir Safe Count? Isn’t he from the Royal Financial Department?” Shining Armor asked in wonder.

“Yes… although I am rather wary of him. As far as I can tell, he is not my ally because he likes or even believes me. Nevertheless, his resources are very welcome.” Frosty said. “Well then, I suppose we should take our leave now. I have a few things to prepare and I am sure, you do as well.”

Frosty moves away, towards the corner where they had run into each other and stops a moment.

“I shall see you tonight then. Good Luck, Captain.”

And with that, he rounded the corner and vanished from sight.

It was 9:45pm, when Shining Armor entered the noble district of Canterlot. The district, while viewed as highly ominous by the commoners, was not unknown to him, since he himself was born here. His parents, Twilight Velvet and Night Light are minor nobles, who lived – and still live – within this district’s borders. Of course, even if he hadn’t been of noble birth, he could’ve simply walked in, due to his position within the guard.

He made his way to Safe Count’s mansion, which lay on the opposite side to the district’s entrance. This was not a coincidence, but by design, for while the noble district was separated off from the City as one large district, it did not mean that it was entirely unified. Within the district’s borders there was a layering similar to the City as a whole.

Closer to the gate were the minor nobles, who, in case of an invasion or – more likely at the time of the district’s construction – a peasant uprising, would serve as cannon fodder to the other, wealthier noble families. This is also where the Sparkle family has their house.

Next up was the bulk of the nobility. Viscounts, Counts, or the wealthier of the barons and the odd titleless, but wealthy buisnesspony here and there. The Mansions of these families looked only marginally bigger than those of the lower nobles, however with the difference that the land these mansions stand on actually belong to the families that own the mansions and not the crown.

This difference was not in the design of the district though, as, while by equestrian law, owning a spot of land also granted one the right to militarily defend said spot (in case of a peasant uprising), this land ownership only came through the families here being wealthy enough to actually purchase that land. That is also why, if one was to draw these two district levels on a map, there would be several enclaves of both levels within the other.

After a sufficient amount of families had become wealthy enough to purchase said land, they pushed the higher nobles to acknowledge them as being of higher status than the normal ‘cannon fodder’, it was then decided that land ownership would be the decisive difference between the two castes.

Speaking of castes, the last of the three was the high nobility. Dukes, Princes – titled, not actual royalty – and the odd, superbly wealthy count, viscount or business magnate lived here, one of which was Sir Safe Count.

Shining Armor had always wondered, how a simple accountant could afford to live within this highly elite community, that wasn’t called ‘the noble district within the noble district’ for nothing. Unfortunately, all who serve the crown enjoy a certain immunity, corresponding to their rank and/or position, which had thus far stopped every investigation before they had even begun. However, that would change as Shining Armor reached Safe Count’s mansion at exactly 9:55pm.

Three bodyguards were posted outside. One of them searched Shining from top to bottom, while one positioned himself behind him and the last remained at the gate. When they had confirmed that Shining Armor was not carrying anything dangerous with him, the gate was opened and he was admitted entrance.

The front yard was not very large. It spanned only a few meters between the hedge and the actual building. The back yard was sectioned off by a wall and could thus not be seen from the front.

The only thing that now stood between him and the inside of the mansion and the answers therein were two massive double doors that by themselves were probably impressive enough to deter any intruder from trying to gain access. They were so utterly intimidating that Shining almost jumped backwards when they swung inwards and granted him access.

Despite his growing wariness, Shining pressed on although, even if he hadn’t, he no longer had a choice but to go forward. The doors had closed shortly after he entered and a butler of the house was now leading him through the corridors, until he stopped in front of another, slightly smaller double door.

“Right behind this door, sir.” The butler said and gently pushed the door open. Shining swallowed once and entered the room.

Inside, there was one big, round table, at which three ponies sat, while a further six were standing close by.

The three ponies sitting at the table were Sir Safe Count, Frozen Blood and the mysterious mare that he had seen being foalnapped earlier today. The six ponies that were standing were Sir Count’s son and Frozen Blood’s entourage, as well as two unknown newcomers.

“Ah, Captain. It is good to see that you made it in time. Please, have a seat. We were just about to start.” Frosty invited.

“Start? Start what?” Shining Armor asked.

“Why, the briefing of course. Captain, I really had expected you to be familiar with those.” Frosty said jokingly.

“W-Well yes, but- but…”

“Splendid. If you’d now please take a seat so we can start?”

Shining Armor looked at the one empty seat that was left, moved up to it and sat down without saying anything further.

“Trixie honestly doesn’t know, how she got roped into this, but… she still owes Frosty a few things, so she will also stay and listen.” Trixie proclaimed.

“That is very nice of you. Thank you, Trixie. Well then, Gentlecolts, let’s get this started, shall we?”

“Yes, ‘let’s get this started’ and Trixie thinks the best way to start is if you finally told her what’s going on! You withheld this information since you got her out of that room!” Trixie half-shouted in frustration.

“What room?” Shining asked.

“Not important right now. However, Trixie is right, I should probably get you all to the same level first. So, make yourself ready for some flash news – Trixie in particular.” He warned. Trixie’s interest seemed exponentially grow with every spoken word.

“So, starting with the basics: Trixie, I am a necromancer.” Frosty admitted. He stared at Trixie for a few seconds, waiting for a panic attack of some sort, however the mare seemed rather unimpressed.

“What, that’s it? That’s the big news? Huh, Trixie had expected more.”

“…Like what?” Frosty asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Pff, well, like… like being sunbutt’s long lost son, or—“ Trixie started, but Shining cut her off.

“Hey, don’t be disrespectful to the princess!” He bellowed.

“Okay, if ‘The Captain’ orders it… I can’t cover for everypony else though, Shieldbutt.” Trixie laughs, making Shining Armor grow a bit red in his face.

“And what would that make you? Wandbutt?” Frosty asked.

“Oh, you can put your wand up my butt any time~” She purred, seductively narrowing her eyes at Frosty.

He sputtered and scooted back a bit, before three angry fillies jumped onto the table before him.

“Hey, hooves off, lady!” Scootaloo shouted.

“Yeah, Frosty is our colt!” Sweetie agreed.

“An’ we ain’t givin’ him away ever!” Applebloom added.

Trixie tried to remain as serious as she could, but failed miserably, when she slammed her head down onto the table and burst out laughing.

“Ah, sorry girls. Trixie pulls this on everypony who calls her ‘Wandbutt’.” She finally explains, when she got herself back under control.

“I’m sure that has earned you quite a few ‘interesting’ nights.”

“Oh, you don’t even know how right you are.” Trixie said, wiggling her eyebrows.

“I, for one don’t know, how we got onto this tangent and would quite like to return to the topic.” Safe Count grumbled.

“Yeah, yeah, right… sorry.” Frosty apologized. He looked down to the table, suddenly looking rather glum. “Well, apart from being a necromancer, you should probably also know that Celestia is out for my head and I do not know why.”

Trixie sighed. “Yes, Trixie has read the news. At first, she thought it was just somepony similar to you, but it seems that isn’t the case.”

Frosty shook his head. “No, sadly it isn’t.”

“’Frosty’ is also supposed to be in exile right now, but has apparently decided to just return, even though he promised to me personally, not to.” Shining Armor pointed out, glaring at Frosty meanwhile.

“Yes, although with very good reason.” Frosty defended.

“Oh yeah? Well, let me hear it then!” Shining Armor demanded.

“Okay. But for that, I will have to introduce somepony first. Or, no… somepony isn’t the right word.” Frosty said, looking behind himself and nodding to his two unknown companions, who then stepped forth.

Shining Armor curiously looked on, wondering what he meant with ‘not the right word’, when he saw the two figures burst into green flames and be replaced by two black, bug-like creatures.

“I introduce to you: Pharynx and Carracas, the last changelings alive, as far as I know.” Frosty presented, although with a very sad voice.

“Changelings? I think I’ve—wait, what do you mean with ‘the last changelings alive’?!” Shining Armor questioned.

Frosty looked very uncomfortable at the question, avoiding eye contact with everypony in the room and scooting around on his chair.

“Frozen Blood, what happened?!” Shining pressed nevertheless.

“I… in an act of utter foolishness, I dragged these poor creatures into something that I couldn’t or maybe just didn’t want to see at the time…” Frosty started, while still looking away to the side. He then swallowed once and turned back around to face the group.

“After we met, Captain, I went south, just like I had promised. There, in the Badlands, I found the hive that these Changelings called their home. Their queen was generous enough to let me stay for an unspecified amount of time, until my problems with Celestia had been solved, however…” Frosty cut himself off and looked away.

“However what?” Shining Armor pressed.

Frosty sighed, but continued despite visible reluctance. “Sadly, said problems would catch up to me far sooner than I had anticipated. We six were out doing some stuff at the time, when we saw a flash and a powerful shockwave threw us through the air. If I wasn’t a necromancer, then I would’ve probably died back there.” Frosty said, giving a short look over to Pharynx and Carracas, who nodded to him encouragingly. “Sadly, Pharynx and Carracas weren’t so lucky. They were hurt. Badly. My only option to save them was to… also turn them undead.” Frosty admitted. “However I made sure to leave their free will as intact as possible!” He then quickly added.

“Alright, that’s at least something, but where did that shockwave come from?” Shining Armor asked.

“We were asking ourselves the same thing at the time, so we went back and… It was all gone. A massive glowing ball, bright and hot like a miniature sun, was ascending to the sky in a thick cloud, leaving only a giant crater where the hive once was.”

“WHAT?!” came from all three adults present.

“You mean to tell Trixie that somepony destroyed an entire civilization just for housing you?!” Trixie exclaimed.

“No, don’t mean to tell you somepony did it. I actually already have a suspicion.” Frosty implied.

“If ‘like a miniature sun’ is meant to imply that it was the princess then I can tell you that she reportedly hasn’t left the palace within the past weeks.” Shining Armor pointed out.

“Maybe, but I didn’t mean Celestia anyways. I mean a certain other mare who has been following me for a while now and who is said princess’s personal student and thus likely has picked up a spell or two.” Frosty said.

“Wait, you mean…? No. Nononono, my sister would NEVER do something like that!” Shining denied.

“Oh really? Then why did she kill these three fillies right in front of their sister’s eyes?” Frosty asked rhetorically, while pointing to the CMC.

“WHAT?! No, you are trying to trick me there! Twilight would NEVER do something like that!” Shining Armor shouted.

“He ain’t trickin’ ya there, ya know?” Applebloom said, jumping and walking on the table towards Shining Armor. “Yer sis set the hut we were hidin’ in aflame while Frosty was talkin’ with our sisters.”

“Oh yeah? Then why are you here, standing and talking before me?!” Shining Armor shouted angrily, though also desperately.

Applebloom remained unfazed by the shouting. She changed her eyes into the void and pointed a hoof at it. “’cause Frosty revived us after jumpin’ inta th’ fire an’ pullin’ us out.”

“What--- Hnggnnokay! Maybe Twilight did that, but I’m sure that was an accident! If she had wanted to kill you three then she would’ve just shot at you directly and not set the hut on fire! Twilight would never willingly kill anypony!” Shining still tried to defend.

“Alright, if you choose to believe that… However, just in case you want to be certain: the explosion in the Badlands had some strange effect. There was this kind of non-magical, lingering effect that was grinding against us on a molecular level. Our necromancy easily dealt with the damages, but a living organism might take longer to repair that.” Frosty described.

“So, you want me to scan Twily for these tiny damages?! Heh, wow, ever considered that she might’ve erected magic shields when casting such a powerful spell?!” Shining aggressively pointed out.

“Like I said, the effect was non-magical, meaning that she would’ve had to erect a physical shield. Do you think your sister would’ve thought of that, when casting such a spell?” Frosty countered calmly.

Shining Armor let out a frustrated groan and jumped out of his chair, standing up and walking towards the door, but stopping right before it.

“Alright… I will go to Ponyville, see if Twily is there and if she is, then I’ll scan her. But I warn you: if I find nothing on her and she tells me she saw you do ANYTHING, then I swear, I will personally drag you before the princesses!” Shining Armor threatened.

“Do as you please.” Frosty said calmly. “In any case, I think these news are highly disturbing for all of us, so let’s continue this another time. Captain, after you’ve returned from Ponyville, please come here as soon as possible and tell me what you’ve found.” Frosty asked.

“You bet I will.” Shining Armor grumbled, before storming through the doors, out of the mansion, turning down the road and entering a side-alley. There he stood for a few moments, before suddenly turning around and smashing his head against the wall.

He groaned from the pain and blood was dropping from one of his eyebrows, yet he hit the wall two more times, before leaning against and sliding down on it. He was breathing heavily and his eyes were filling with tears. Had he ever cried during his guard career? Probably a few times… but since he became the Captain? Probably not.

His thoughts were all over the place, sometimes flying to Twilight, then to the Dragon lands, to Cadence, to Spike, to the company he had led…

And then it started raining.

At first only a few trickles, but when Shining looked up, the rain started to pour down in full.

“Great. Even the Pegasi are mocking me today…” He grumbled while looking up… at the road sign he was sitting under.

‘Royalty Ave.’ If he went down this avenue and turned left, he would come to the street where his parents lived. He hadn’t visited them in a long time… maybe he should do that for once?

He decided that that was probably the best thing he could do to ease his mind and so, he went down the road… in the rain, with a bleeding eyebrow, a sore head and an almost broken mind.

Keys to Power

After Shining’s quick departure, Frosty dismissed Trixie and Safe Count and retreated himself to the chambers he shared with the fillies. He originally wanted to use this short interlude to plan out his next steps, however the fillies seemingly had different plans.

“Frosty?” Applebloom started, once they had entered the room.

“Yes, Applebloom?”

“Can I ask ya somethin’?”

“Go ahead.”

“So… we’ve been wonderin’… why are ya makin’ such an effort when ya could jus’ turn ‘em all undead?” Applebloom asked.

Frosty stopped in the middle of the room and turned to face the fillies. “Oh really? So all three of you have been asking yourself that?” He asked, more to Scootaloo and Sweetie than to Applebloom.

The two fillies looked at each other once, then shared a glance with Applebloom and then all three nodded to Frosty. “Yep, we did.” Scootaloo said.

Frosty chuckled lightly. He didn’t know what he had expected, of course they wouldn’t know. He never told them in detail what he was planning and they were too young to figure it out for themselves… probably.

“Alright, alright. I suppose it is time that I finally tell you my thoughts… to an extent at least.” He told them and went over to the desk that stood at the right wall from the entrance and took a piece of paper from it.

“My plan goes as follows: We all know Celestia as the one sole ruler over Equestria, right?” Frosty asked and the fillies nodded.

“Wrong. She may be the one who stands above all others, but no pony rules alone. Even the seemingly almost omnipotent Celestia needs…” Frosty quickly doodled a crown and drew a circle around it with three lines going downwards.

“… her Army,” He doodled a spear at the end of one of the lines.

“… and her Government.” He doodled a gavel at another.

“Additionally, the Elements of Harmony are also rather important.” He doodled a six-pointed star that roughly resembled Twilight’s cutie mark off to the side, drew five lines around it and put a rough sketch of the other bearer’s cutie marks at their ends.

“Now, since Shining Armor is almost on our side now and he represents and commands the entirety of Equestria’s military, I already crippled one of these ‘pillars’ as you may call them.” He said, crossing out the spear. “And with Safe Count, we technically already have a hoof inside her government.” He said, tapping his quill against the gavel-doodle. “However, I don’t intend on going any further on that front, simply because messing around directly under her nose is almost guaranteed to get me killed. Again.” He said, striking off the line to the gavel.

“That’s not a problem, however, as there is a third option that Celestia herself has opened up for us, through her own decisions and actions.” He said and drew the symbol for a mathematical sum at the end of the third line. “The general populace.”

“Huh? But, ah mean, didn’t she try tah kill ya, even if it meant that everpony else died as well?” Applebloom pointed out.

“Exactly. So what do you think will happen when somepony made that public?”

“Uhh, I don’t think that anypony would be happy about that.” Sweetie said.

“Indeed. To be exact, I think there would be quite a few protests and, if we dramatize things enough, maybe even revolts.” Frosty said, with an evil grin creeping up his features.

“Ah… so what about the Elements? You said they were also important earlier.” Scootaloo pointed out.

“Their importance comes from the power they grant to the ones that wield them… and to the one who controls their wielders.” Frosty explained and drew a fourth line from the crown directly to Twilight’s star.

“The thing is that the Elements of Harmony are the sole thing, besides an Alicorn, that can possibly potentially almost certainly destroy me. As such, their sole existence is a threat to me. Luckily, Celestia didn’t play her cards well in this regard. Her bond with Twilight might be almost impervious…” He said, tapping at the line between the crown and the star. “But her connection to the others only exists through Twilight.” He taps at the five connections going out from the star. “And through her own and Twilight’s actions, Twilight has been successfully isolated from the others, so that…” He struck through all five lines between Twilight and the other element bearers. ” … The Elements are no longer a unified force and are thus a lot less of a threat.”

“An’ some o’ them even like ya a lot.” Applebloom pointed out.

“Yes, however I don’t know if that is a boon that I can actually fully use. At least it’s not part of the plan yet… anyways, that’s the basic idea that I am pursuing. I would fill you in with the greater picture, but… there is none.” The fillies gasped when he said that. “Yeah, shocking, I know, but believe it or not: there is actually a reason. Planning ahead is good, but plan too far and you make yourself vulnerable to sabotage, unexpected events and things like that. Basically, the plan can’t fail if there is no plan in the first place.” He chuckled.

“Uhhh, buuut… ya’ve been actin’ pretty smart fer somepony without a plan.” Applebloom complimented.

“Yeah… okay, ‘no plan’ is not correct. There is a plan, it’s just… very broad and really not something you should worry about. Now, if you’d excuse me, I have a lot of fine details to take into account now.” He said, hopping onto the chair at the table and starting to scribble.

“I thought it was only a very broad plan?” Sweetie noted.

“Heh, just because it’s very broad doesn’t mean I can ignore the details, Sweetie.” Frosty laughed. “Now, how about you three go and take a relaxing bath? We haven’t had that luxury ever since our hut burned down.”

“YAY!” The three fillies shouted excitedly and ran off into the bathroom, leaving Frosty finally alone to write out his plans.

Author's Note

Infodump. Nothing more, nothing less. Yeah, I know, I'm an evil torturer letting you wait for what happens between Twi and Shining and whoever you want to see, but that was to be expected, wasn't it? After all, this is a story about a villain. :raritywink:

Family Disputes

Shining Armor groaned as he rolled over on the sofa. He had actually gone to his parent’s house that evening and paid them a visit. Of course they were more than happy to welcome their crying and bleeding son into their home, which means that his mother almost called the princess herself, because her son was injured on the street. Luckily he managed to come up with an excuse, before she did that.

He still couldn’t believe she bought the old ‘I fell down the stairs’ – tale.

After Twilight Velvet had patched him up and he spent the evening with them, he elected to stay for the night. He awoke the next morning, when his mother put him some breakfast onto the coffee table.

“Morning dear! Did you sleep well?” She asked cheerfully. Sadly, Shining couldn’t share Velvet’s bright mood.

“Uurrrgh… my head hurts… and my back feels like I slept on a rock.” Shining complained.

“Well, I did tell you, you could sleep in your old room, but somepony wanted to sleep on the couch instead.” Velvet huffed indignantly. “Really, it’s very immature of you to just not want to sleep in your room because you find it too ‘foalish’… I can’t even see why.”

“Yes, I know mom…” Shining mumbled groggily. Of course, his reason to sleep on the couch wasn’t that he found his old room too foalish, but that he’d pass Twilight’s on the way there. He couldn’t very well tell her that though or else she might think that he had suddenly come to hate his own sister…

Shining groaned. Thinking about his sister right now was only adding to his already existing headache and the conflict in his head wasn’t really making things better either.

Truth be told, he didn’t believe Frosty one bit. After all, Twilight was his sister, right? And he knew that she would never do something like that… right?

No, he definitely didn’t believe Frosty. Not in the slightest. It was just that… It all added up way too much and it all fit way too well… What if it really was all true? What if his sister did all these things that Frosty had described? It was nothing but a single thought, but that single thought shot through his head every time he thought about his sister.

“Shining, don’t go to sleep again, or you’ll mess up your sleep schedule!” Velvet warned. “I thought the guard taught you about that stuff?”

Shining didn’t answer. Instead, he rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. His breakfast was still sitting beside him, its delicious smell wafting into his nostrils, but even if he was hungry, all these terrible thoughts had properly robbed him of all appetite.

“Mom?” He suddenly spoke up, almost startling his mother and making her break a plate.

“Uh, uh, yes dear?” She quickly said, while carefully holding the fallen plate in her magic.

“Would you believe somepony if they told you Twily did something… bad?” Shining hesitantly asked.

“Huh? Where did that come from?” His mother asked back half-mindedly, while putting the plate back to where it belonged.

“I was just… wondering. Like, what if somepony had very good evidence that she really did it? Would you believe them?” Shining asked further.

His mother turned around and gave him a very disapproving look. “Shining, what do you mean to imply?”

“Uh, nothing, it’s just…” Shining tried to excuse, but when he looked his mother in the eyes, he knew that lying was a fruitless effort.

“Ugh, there’s somepony that said some pretty nasty things, Twily supposedly did and he brought some very decent evidence with him. He even told me how I can check for myself! I could just go visit her and see if she really did it, but… what if it turns out to be true?” Shining asked. For the first time in years, Velvet saw her little colt again, looking up at her and asking her for help. It made her chuckle.

“Shining, Twilight is your sister, right?” Velvet asked in a calm and motherly tone.

“Yes, of course!” Shining answered immediately.

“And you would never think that she would ever do anything bad, would you?”

“No! Never in my life!” Shining almost shouted.

“Then what are you afraid of? We both know that Twilight would never do anything bad. All you now need to do is to go to her and prove her innocence.” Velvet advised.

Shining smiled a bit, nodding to himself. “Yes. Yes, of course! Thanks mom!” He said, hugging his mother tightly, before bolting out, leaving the door open behind him.

Twilight Velvet watched her son disappear through the door, before chuckling to herself and putting away Shining’s untouched food. After all, there was no need to waste a perfectly good breakfast.

In Ponyville, Twilight and the other Element Bearers were currently sitting in the Library, Twilight on one end of her Kitchen table and her former friends on the other.

She had tried multiple times already to convince them that Frosty was the actual villain this whole time and that he was just toying with them. However, her former friends were also trying to convince her that Celestia was the one toying and that Twilight was nothing but the stick she was poking the fire with. Ultimately she would also be thrown into the fire and left to burn.

Their arguments were shot back and forth, each side trying to convince the other. However none gave in. Instead, this confrontation that was meant to bring the group back together was only widening the gap between the two sides.

They were already about to end this charade, when Shining Armor burst through the doors and headed straight for Twilight.

“Shining, wha—“ she managed, but was cut off by her brother.

“Twily! Good to see that you’re back! Listen, I’ve recently talked to Frosty and I think I have a way of proving that you’re innocent!” He said excitedly.

“Really? Oh that—wait, you met him?!” Twilight did not sound particularly happy about that.

“Yes. I owed him a favour after he and his companions saved our hides on the dragon border, but that doesn’t matter now.” He quickly said, before charging up his horn and starting the scan. “this should only take a few seconds, so just wait and…. And… uhhh…”

His smile vanished and was replaced with and expression of deep confusion that morphed first into barely subdued anger and then into desperation.

“No… nonono, that can’t be, it can’t—Planted evidence! Yes, that has to be it! We just need a way to prove it!” He thought out loud. A moment of silence followed, before he shouted again: “The Badlands! If what he said hadn’t happened, then there should be nothing there!”

Without explaining anything any further, he galloped out and straight south. The Element Bearers looked at one another once, before silently deciding that they should probably follow him and set off as well. Twilight was the last to remain at the table, dumbfoundedly looking out of the kitchen window, before shrugging to Spike once and setting off as well.

Only when he finally arrived did Shining Armor realize, how big the Badlands actually were and was thus forced to think anew. Luckily, however, he heard the mares galloping up behind him and spun around to them.

“Ah, good that you came! I need your help to search this place, Miss Dash’s in particular.” He said, turning to Rainbow. “I want you to fly up high and scout the place for anything that looks like the sun had come down there.” He described vaguely.

“Umm… what? I mean, did you look around? This whole area looks as if the sun had come down on us! Everything’s just… sand and heat and… stuff.” Rainbow lamented.

“I know, but I mean, something that seems odd even in this region. Here--“ He charged his horn again and placed some kind of spell on Rainbow. “that’s a communication spell that our guard uses to keep contact to our scouts. Now, please, search for anything that seems odd.” He pleaded.

“Hey, no problem, I was in from the start. It’s just that I don’t really know what I’m looking for.” Rainbow assured.

“Oh, uh, from what Frosty told me, it should be a large crater or something in that regard. I’m sure you won’t miss it, if it exists.” Shining Armor described.

“Oh… kay… Well, umm, I’m gonna get flying then.” Rainbow said and took off.

Just when Rainbow zoomed off, Twilight ‘s running form appeared in the distance, drawing closer and closer, until the panting mare stood directly in front of her brother.

“Shining... *pant* wha--… *pant* Badlands…” She panted, trying to say something, but being too out of breath to do so.

“Woah, easy there, Twi. Seems like you need some exercise, huh?” Shining joked, trying to lift his own mood a little, when Rainbow called in through the spell.

“Uhh, test test… Sir Armor? Uhh, I think I found the crater.” She said.

‘Huh, wow, that was fast.’ He thought

“Great, how big is it? Like a big lake or something?” Shining asked.

“Uhhh… no. I’d say, it’s about, uhhh… twice the size of Ponyville, maybe bigger?”

“WHAT?!” Shining shouted in shock. “No way! No bucking way! I have to see that for myself! Miss Dash, would you please land, so I can teleport safely?”

“Huh? Uhh, yeah, I can, but…”

“Then land! Please.” Shining ordered, only adding the ‘please’ as an afterthought.

“Y-Yes, sir!” Rainbow shouted back, before howling winds could be heard through the spell, followed by the thud of hooves on sand.

“There, I’ve landed, sir.”

Without another word, Shining teleported to her and when he did, his jaw fell down. He looked over the most giant crater he had ever seen in his entire life. His own eyes were now confirming that Rainbow’s estimate likely was correct and maybe even still too low…

He didn’t manage to say anything. He didn’t want to say anything. All he could do was stare.

Suddenly, he heard Rainbow shriek behind him and he spun around in an instant. What he saw was the last drop in the barrel.

Rainbow Dash had seemingly jumped a few hooves backwards, when something touched her hoof and when Shining looked what it was, he noted with shock that it seemed like some sort of empty exoskeleton that resembled the two ‘changelings’ that were with Frosty.

The sight made Shining feel sick. No matter how much he tried to excuse his sister, he ultimately couldn’t. He was confused, he was desperate and maybe even a little sick, but first and foremost, he was angry.

He teleported Rainbow and himself back to the group, where Twilight was already waiting and greeting them.

Shining didn’t say anything. He only moved to his sister.

“Hey Shining, what’s wrong, what did you—“ She was cut off by Shining’s hoof slamming into her face. She fell to the ground, a thick bruise already starting to form on her cheek.

“TWILIGHT, WHAT IN THE WORLD WERE YOU THINKING?!” He shouted at her, tears gathering in his eyes. “I knew that you would do anything for the Princess, but I never would’ve thought that you would even just THINK about killing a single pony, never mind an ENTIRE CIVILIZATION!”

The others gasped as they heard this. “What?! Did you really--?“ Rainbow stammered.

“No! Girls, I swear, that wasn’t me! That was—“ Twilight tried to defend, but Shining cut her off.

“It’s no use anymore, Twily. I can’t just blindly believe you anymore after everything that I’ve seen here.” Shining said, on the verge of crying. “… You aren’t my sister anymore.” He said, turning around and heading back.

Twilight was shocked beyond words. She wanted to tell them what really happened, prove to them that she was innocent… but she had already tried multiple times and with each time… they seemed to trust her less.

Her former friends passed her shortly after Shining had left. They didn’t even spare her a glance. She wanted to talk to them, clear things up at least a little, but when she tried, she immediately received an intense glare by Applejack.

The girls left just like Shining did and Twilight remained, alone, exhausted and heartbroken. She didn`t know how long she stayed in the Badlands, but when she arrived back in Ponyville, night had already set in and everypony seemed to be asleep.

She quietly made her way to her room, sat onto the bed… and couldn’t sleep. Too many thoughts plagued her mind to allow her to rest.

She had lost everything. Her family, her friends, the Elements of Harmony and most importantly, she had no clue how it could’ve come to this. She was accused of things she never did and everypony seemed certain of her guilt, even though she never really had the chance to defend herself. To her, it seemed like there was no way out of this… almost, at least.

Her eyes scanned her room and fell on the balcony, upon which she had set up her stargazing equipment and as her body set itself into motion, her broken mind came up with one last alternative – one last way out that she hadn’t tried.

She stepped out into the cold midnight breeze, past her telescope and towards the railing.

She looked down. The height alone likely wasn’t enough to kill a pony instantly. Most likely she would just break her legs, ribs and a few other bones and then slowly bleed to death. However, there was also the mailbox. It wasn’t pointy enough to impale her, sure, but if she aimed carefully and hit it head-first, it might crush her skull and thus grant her a quick end.

Deciding that this was her best bet, she placed herself in the optimal position, swung a hoof up onto the railing and leaned over…

…only to be yanked back by a white hoof.

“No! Shining! Let me go, please! Please, it’s no use anymore! I just… I can’t—“ Twilight sobbed and cried and struggled against the grip around her.

“I’m sorry, Twilight, but I’m not your brother. Still, even I can’t let your life end in such a way.” The pony behind her said in a coltish voice that made her freeze the moment she heard it.

“W-w-what are you doing here?” She asked fearfully, as she slowly turned her head to the side and looked into a light grey face with a white mane.

“I’m saving you from the biggest mistake of your life.” He answered smugly.

“What? No… NO! I don’t want to be saved by you! Let me go!” She demanded, struggling against his grip. However, even a grown unicorn mare like her couldn’t do anything against a necromancy-boosted colt like him.

“And let you jump to your death? No. Twilight please, don’t throw your life away like that! There is so much that you can do to make the world better and you just want to throw all of that away?” Frosty questioned.

“That comes from the one colt who made me do this in the first place!” Twilight spat. “You were the one who destroyed our bond and made me look like a villain! So now at least let me die like one!”

“That’s just the thing: I didn’t. I never made any move to set you up against each other Twilight. All I ever did was trying to survive.” Frosty reasoned.

“Oh yeah?! Then why has everything gone downhill, ever since you were found out?!” Twilight spat, though it came out like more sobbing.

“Did you ever notice that every time your relationship with your friends worsened was preceded by an action from Princess Celestia?” Frosty pointed out.

“Oh, now you’re trying to blame the Princess?!”

“No. Just like you, I am a citizen of Equestria and love my princesses, Twilight… however…” Frosty hesitated.

“What?”

“There seems to be a darkness corrupting Celestia’s very soul. I first noticed it during the incident here in Ponyville, when she tried to blast me, and have since spotted multiple individuals with similar corruption. Fortunately I also found out that it can be cleansed with soul magic, so healing her should be possible.” Frosty assured.

“Heh, so why didn’t you cure her already?” Twilight demanded.

“Because even – or rather, especially -- I can’t just walk into the palace and use magic on the princesses.” Frosty stated flatly.

“True… alright, then we can just use the elements! I’m sure they’ll be useful.”

“The elements are currently inoperable due to your less-than-ideal relationship with your ‘friends’.” Frosty pointed out.

“Yes, I know, but… I can fix this… Yeah, I can…” Twilight assured herself.

“Maybe, yeah, but it would all be much easier if we were to work together.” Frosty offered. “Please, Twilight. I like you quite a lot you know? You were a fantastic teacher and are a very kind mare. I would hate seeing you on the other side of my horn one day.”

“Y-you can’t sweet-talk me to your side!” Twilight insisted, though with a much less hostile tone than at the beginning.

“By siding with me, you might also win your friend’s and familiy’s trust back.”

That seemed to be the last straw needed. Twilight froze for just a second, but tried to hide it. Frosty noticed anyways, however, and now knew that his prey had taken the bait.

“Sadly, I can no longer stay with you and try to convince you. Really, I am very sorry for everything that you went through.” He said. “I hope we will soon see each other again. Farewell.” Frosty said, before teleporting away.

Twilight was now alone on the balcony, in the freezing midnight air. Her mind was in shambles, her body was freezing and her world was on the brink of destruction. Thus, she decided that going to bed was the best option for now. However, sleep wouldn’t come easily to her, as today’s happenings were plagueing her mind and keeping her from resting properly, until her body finally yielded and her exhaustion carried her into the realm of dreams.

Hostile Takeover

Once again, it was silent in the Tree Library. Once again, six mares sat at the kitchen table, one on one side, five at the other. Once again, the tension between the two parties could be felt from the other side of the town. However, this time around, the single mare looked and acted a lot more timid. Her ears were splayed back and she was looking more to the ground than to the mares opposite of her and her body posture rivalled that of Fluttershy.

“Twi, ah’ma be real honest with ya here: No matter how often ya git us in here an’ try ta tell us that Frosty’s evil, we ain’t buyin’ it.” Applejack brashly pointed out right off the bat, making Twilight shrink down even more than she already was.

“Yes, I know, I… I promise this isn’t gonna be anything like tha—“

“Oh yeah? Then what did ya call us here for? Again.” Rainbow interrupted her, quite obviously not wanting to be here.

“Umm, I would like to know that too. Also, putting teleport traps into the letters was, umm, not very nice.” Fluttershy said, though it came out more as a quiet mumble. The others were of course used to this by now, so they caught what she said nonetheless.

“Yes, that was indeed not very nice of you, Darling.” Rarity agreed, though it was obvious that she had to hold back quite a lot to not use more colourful language.

“Why did ya do this anyways?” Applejack questioned.

“Because if I didn`t, none of you would’ve actually come.” Twilight mumbled rather Fluttershy-like. “I mean… after yesterday, I thought you’d probably not come anyways.”

“Yeah, pff, who knows why that could be? Definitely not because you’ve wiped out an entire species or anything, no, definitely not.” Rainbow scoffed.

“That wasn’t me, I swear!” Twilight immediately defended.

“Oh yeah, and now you’re gonna tell us that it was Frosty and yada yada. Might be surprising to you, Twi, but guess what, I actually read the letter. I know that you wanted to talk about Frosty. So, what’s it gonna be this time? That he summoned the sun itself to blast the desert and every creature that was there?” Rainbow huffed. She crossed her forelegs and gave Twilight a challenging glare.

“No, none of this, I-I actually didn`t even want to talk about the Badlands at all!” Twilight whined. “I just… I just wanted to tell you something. That… I’m sorry. Really, I’m very sorry for what I did. I was just doing what I thought the Princess would want and never thought about what might be the consequences of my actions… I’m very sorry, really.”

“That’s all nice and well, but being sorry won’t revive those who-knows-how-many creatures that died out there!” Rarity suddenly cut in very sharply and loudly, before quickly covering her mouth with a hoof. “Oh, pardon me. That was very unladylike of me.”

“I already told you that I didn’t do it!” Twilight shouted desperately. Rainbow, Rarity and Fluttershy sent curious looks over to Applejack, who returned their gaze. After a moment, she sighed and shook her head.

“She ain’t lyin’, folks. At least, as far as ah ken tell.” She said.

“What?! So… so Frosty really killed those Change…whatevers himself?!” Rainbow gasped.

“Ah din’t say that. All ah know’s that Twi didn’t.” Applejack answered.

“So what did you call us here for, dear?” Rarity asked Twilight.

“THAT’S WHAT I WAS TRYING TO TELL YOU THIS WHOLE TIME, It’s…” Twilight shouted, before suddenly becoming very timid. She tapped her hooves together before her and paused a moment, before quietly speaking again. “It’s because of what happened… last night.”

Immediately, everypony’s eyes widened and Pinkie Pie suddenly appeared next to Twilight and wiggled her eyebrows at her.

“Ooooooh, did we develop a taste for bad little colts, Twilight?” She teased.

“Wha—NO! No, that’s… that…” She stammered, before quickly collecting herself. “He didn’t come here for… that! He came here to… to save me.”

“Save you? From what? This library is probably as safe as it can get without using military spells… and don’t try to deny that you’ve been reinforcing this place as of late! I recognize a warded window when I smash into one!” Rainbow pointed out.

“Not somethin’ yer should be proud of.” Applejack mumbled under her breath.

“Yes, I have been reinforcing the Library for a while now, because somepony kept smashing the windows!” Twilight half-shouted, sending a glare to Rainbow. “But the danger he saved me from wasn’t external, but internal. He saved me from making the biggest mistake a pony, or any creature for that matter, could ever make…”

“…Which would be, darling?” Rarity ushered on.

Twilight hesitated for a moment, the word sticking like a lump in her throat. She swallowed hard twice and took a few deep breaths, before timidly whispering: “Suicide.”

Immediately, the previously widened eyes went even wider and even Pinkie’s mane deflated, as everypony present sat there for a moment, in shocked silence. Luckily, Spike was currently busy cleaning and was thus out of earshot.

“WHAT?!” Pinkie screeched, jumping up and over Twilight and landing behind her, from where she started tightly hugging the purple unicorn. “No Twilight, please don’t do that! Please!! You can’t end it like uncle Quick Fall!” Pinkie cried.

“Ah agree with Pinkie there, Twi. Ya’ve done some pretty nasty stuff recently, but suicide? That ain’t no solution to anythin’.” Applejack scolded.

“I know, but… After I lost Shining and you girls in the Badlands, I just… I didn’t know what to do anymore. I felt like I had lost everything I ever had at that moment. I felt so exhausted from everything that had been happening as of late that I just wanted… a way out, or something…” Twilight recalled. “But, just when I was about to jump, he pulled me away from the edge and held me tight and… He told me a few things. With most of them, I don’t know if I should believe them or not, but the few that I know I can believe lead me to think that he might actually not be a bad pony after all…” Twilight said, insecurely studying the ground under the table.

“So you’re finally joining our side? Cool!” Rainbow celebrated.

“No.” Twilight answered.

“What?”

“As I said, Rainbow, there are quite a few things that I don’t know if they are true. However I… I can say for certain that saving me doesn’t make any logical sense for him. After all, I was actively working against him, so if he really was a bad pony, he would’ve just let me die…” Twilight pondered. “I can’t join his cause, because he is a criminal by equestrian law and if Celestia ever directly tells me to go against him then I certainly will, but…” Twilight sighed. “As long as that doesn’t happen, I guess I’ll just keep my hooves still. Even if he hadn’t saved me, I would’ve probably given up now. I’ve been pursuing him for only about a week or so and that timespan was enough to almost ruin my whole life. No, that’s definitely not worth it.”

Twilight shook her head and she frowned down towards the ground for a few seconds. Then, a smile graced her features again and she looked up over the table, towards the four mares that were still sitting on the other side.

“Now, I know that a simple apology won’t undo what I’ve subjected your sisters to, but I still hope that you can forgive me.” She said, before stretching her hoof across the table and smiling hopefully. “Can we be friends again?”

The group awkwardly looked around the room… except for Pinkie Pie, who was immediately happily jumping in place beside Twilight.

“Yesyesyesyesyes! We can be friends again! I love being friends – but not the ‘just friends’ kinda friends, I mean the friendly kind of friends!” Pinkie rambled, while pulling Twilight into another death-hug.

“Ah shoot. Alrighty, Twi. Friends again.” Applejack said and held her hoof against Twilight’s

“Friends again.” Rarity said and did the same.

“Friends again.” Fluttershy chimed in.

Now, everypony was staring at Rainbow, who still sat with her forelegs crossed and pouted.

“Rainbow?” Twilight asked in a hopeful tone.

The prismatic Pegasus only huffed and turned away, though her pouty face seemed to be fading ever so slightly.

“Rainbow, come on, ya can’t be mad forever.” Applejack ushered.

The staring continued for a few seconds more, until Rainbow finally gave in and flailed her forelegs. “Argh, okay! Friends again.” She said and put her own foreleg against Twilight’s.

“Thanks, girls!” She said happily. “I promise, you won’t regret this!”

Frosty and the fillies were currently standing in front of a mirror inside a large mansion. He had donned his tuxedo and fedora once again and was currently fiddling with his outward appearance, though nothing he tried seemed to quite satisfy his expectations.

“Say, Frosty…” Sweetie suddenly started from beside him. “I was wondering, if you did all this to isolate Twilight as much as possible, why didn’t you just let her kill herself? Wouldn’t that’ve removed that problem entirely?”

Frosty continued fiddling with his tuxedo and meanwhile answered her question as if she had asked about the weather. “No, quite the opposite, it would’ve spawned new ones. See, as far as I know, the elements seek out ponies who can wield them and when one of the bearers dies, there’s a high possibility that the respective element would just seek out a new bearer which would have to be found. Unfortunately, Celestia has an immeasurable advantage in that regard, as, firstly, she already has the assets needed to search for them, while we would have to get said assets first and secondly, I am quite certain that she also already has a list with potential candidates, should one of the current bearers die.” He briefly turned around and looked at Sweetie. “Not to mention that Celestia would likely unleash all hell upon me if I were to harm her most favourite student.”

“Ah, of course, and it definitely doesn’t have anything to do with emotions or anything.” Sweetie teased.

“Hey, I might be an ‘evil Necromancer-King’ but that doesn’t mean I can’t get emotional! I mean, I have been in such a situation myself before I came to you and… it isn’t nice. Not at all. So, yeah… maybe I did get a little emotional. Buuuuuuuut there was also a bit of strategy in there.” Frosty claimed.

“Really? What didcha do?” Scootaloo asked.

“Eh, I tried to get her on our side, so we could maybe use the bearer’s hero status to start a riot against Celestia.” Frosty said.

“So… do you think it worked?”

Frosty chuckled before answering. “No. Most likely not. After all, she is Celestia’s most faithful student. She may have been wavering quite a lot, sure, but I doubt that I could undo within just a minute or so, what has been drilled into her for years. However, that’s okay. I may need to seek out new ways and methods to reach my goal, but at least I can hope that Twilight will give up now.”

He fiddled a moment more, before he finally managed a style that he liked.

“Aaaah. Is that why we broke into this mansion?” Scootaloo asked.

Frosty chuckled again and smirked at the orange filly. “Yep, exactly, Scootaloo.” He said and turned left, where massive double-doors stood with two dead henchponies formerly guarding it.

“Now,” He started. “according to Safe Count, these doors are the last thing that stands between us and the so-called ‘council of twelve’. You see: Safe Count may operate the single largest crime Network in Equestria, but these ponies sitting behind these doors, control all the rest.” He said with an evil grin, as he pointed to the door.

“Before we go in there, remember what I told you to do. Sweetie?”

“I’m gonna storm in, jump over the table and turn the henchponies on the other side of the room undead.” Sweetie said.

“Applebloom?”

“Ah’m gonna do tha same with tha ones on this side.” She replied.

“And Scoots?”

“I’m gonna turn these two undead…” As she said so, the two dead henchponies got up again and now had orange-glowing dots instead of eyes. “…and watch out that nopony comes in uninvited.”

“Correct! Well then, I guess it’s showtime.” Frosty grinned evilly and put a hoof against the doors. He shared one last look with the three fillies, before he pushed the doors open and the show began.

Sweetie Belle and Applebloom immediately shot inside and turned the guards inside the room undead. Frosty meanwhile jumped onto the table in the middle, where twelve very startled-looking businessponies were currently holding their meeting.

“Greetings, gentlecolts! If I may introduce myself, I am Frozen Blood. You all should know my name by now.” He greeted.

“That wannabe-necromancer that’s currently dominating the headlines? Pah, as if anypony would believe such a cheap lie. Now, you better get outta here, little colt or else something really bad might happen.” One of the businessponies threatened.

“Oh no, now I’m scared. Please, don’t hurt me, I only wanted to strike up a deal with you.” Frosty said in mock fear.

“And what kind of deal would that be?” Another businesspony asked. “What would a little colt like you have to offer?”

“Oh, that’s quite simple, really. You swear absolute loyalty to me and in turn, I will spare your lives.” Frosty smirked.

The businessponies looked at one another for a few seconds, before they all burst into rounds of laughter.

“You…” One of them wheezed. “You are… *wheeze* You are threatening us?!” They laughed even more at this and Frosty lightly joined in.

It took a while for the laughter to die down, but when it eventually did, one of the business ponies immediately spoke up.

“Listen kid: You’ve had your fun, but now you better get lost! We’re not gonna give you anything, even if it was meant seriously.”

Frosty chuckled. “Oh, that’s quite alright, really. After all…” His chuckle turned into an evil grin and his eyes had become red dots once again.

“… I don’t need you alive.”

Mor(t)ality

When the day neared its end, most ponies were already looking forward to getting home and enjoying their precious free time. Princess Celestia was no different from that. After a hard day mostly spent drowning in paperwork or listening to the definitely not self-interested babbling of some stuck-up noble, she too was quite glad that she finally had some time to herself.

She had always wondered, how somepony who already had so much could still want more, while those who only had very little were content with what they had. This little quirk was one of very few things about the mortal races that she as an immortal being would likely never come to understand.

Choosing not to think too much about the negative characteristics of her ponies, Celestia instead fully indulged the dinner she shared with her sister. Sadly, it was void of any chatter, as Luna, despite being the princess of the night, was definitely not a night pony. She had actually argued quite a few times, that she could enter the dream realm while her body rested and join her sister in court during the day.

Alas, while that would have been a wonderful idea to both of them, Celestia sadly had to decline. After all, Luna wanted to be recognized as a princess not only by her sister, but by the entire population of Equestria. As such, to avoid her becoming the ‘background sister’ again, they thought it best to let her fully embrace her role as night princess and hold court during the night, where she alone would occupy the throne.

Luna barely registered that her breakfast cereal had already been placed before her and was instead fighting to keep her eyes open. However it was a hopeless cause, as her eyes slowly slid closed and Celestia got to enjoy the sight of her ever noble and graceful little sister gracefully plunging her head into the milk-filled bowl.

Once her tired mind realized that milk is not air – which actually took a few seconds – she gasped and sat up straight, thus pulling some milk into her throat and making her cough quite heavily.

Celestia had tried not to laugh at it, but in the end, her amusement won out and she started laughing. Even when Luna stopped coughing, Celestia couldn’t stop her laughter and only when a scroll popped into existence over her and bounced off her head did she finally stop.

Luna, too, had a short moment of laughter, but that quickly died down, when she saw Celestia’s serious expression as she read the letter.

“Tia? What has happened? Thou look as if our entire family has been slain.” Luna asked worriedly.

“Perhaps that is not quite what happened, but it surely comes close.” Celestia said. “Twilight Sparkle, the current bearer of the Element of Magic and my current personal student – the one, who saved you together with her friends – has just asked me to pardon the current most-wanted criminal in Equestria.”

“Oh…” Luna replied. “Well, what are the charges put against him?” She asked.

Celestia narrowed her eyes and leaned closer, before dramatically hissing “Necromancy.”

A few seconds ticked by without any movement on either side, before Luna spoke up.

“Is that all?” she asked sceptically.

“What do you mean, ‘Is that all’? Need I remind you, what a plague those necromancers were, back in the day?!”

“No, there is no need. We were both personally hunting them down, remember?” Luna pointed out. “’Tis just that, while a serious crime indeed, Necromancy is not something that would’ve immediately qualified a pony for the most wanted. We were expecting a bit more.”

“What?! How could you expect any more than this? This is already the most serious crime committed within the past five thousand years!” Celestia exclaimed.

“Oh, we are pretty certain there were more atrocious feats than mere –“ Suddenly, Luna paused and stared blankly onto the table, before she looked up and into her sister’s eyes. “This is about him again, isn’t it?”

“About whom?” Celestia asked back.

“Thou know, whom we mean.” Luna countered.

“No, I do not.” Celestia huffed.

“Tia, thee cannot remain stuck on events that transpired more than five thousand years ago! Thou hast to finally move on!” Luna ordered.

“No, I cannot simply ‘move on’, Luna! You know what he had caused! You know how much he destroyed! I cannot risk him or anypony even closely resembling him to ever come into being ever again!” Celestia shouted, showing Luna the grief and anger she had been hiding for the past few millennia. Luna recoiled a bit from that, the implications of her sister’s words ringing a few alarm bells in her head.

“Dost thou mean that this one resembles him? Tia, we hope thou know the meaning of this. If they share even just a minor resemblance then it might be a reincarnation.” Luna cautioned.

“Yes, I know. That was why I originally set Twilight onto him. However, now that she apparently dropped out, it seems I will have to find another way. I hope I can count on your help.” Celestia stated, while re-reading Twilight’s letter once again, trying to find any potential coded messages or something of that sort. After all, Twilight was a highly intelligent mare, who could very well be trying to fool Frozen Blood with this letter.

“Of course, sister. Thee can count on our aid.” Luna said.

“Thank you, Luna.“ Celestia said, smiling at her younger sister. “It is good to know that you are there to help me again.”

“Yes, it is indeed. We have long wondered, how you even managed to keep our lands upright without us.” Luna quipped.

“Oh, har har. Very funny, really.”

“…That’s all I heard. After that, they both didn’t really talk anymore.” Shining Armor concluded. He had been on Guard duty earlier this evening and had thus managed to listen in on the princesses’ conversation.

“Huh, interesting… so the princesses think that I resemble somepony from the past? Well, given the track record of necromancers as a whole and Celestia’s reaction to me, I doubt that their shared memories are anything positive.” Frosty thought aloud.

“Indeed, which is why we need to tread carefully from now on. Any misstep could uncover our entire operation.” Safe Count cautioned.

“I believe you mean your little ‘family’ you got running, in which case I can tell you that they most likely already know.” Frosty pointed out. “What they likely don’t know, however, is that you have allied yourself with me and will thus hopefully not search here… yet.”

“Yeah yeah yeah, yada yada, secrets here, secrets there, when does Trrrixie finally become important?” Trixie whined, making Frosty turn to her and smirk.

“Oh, soon, believe me. Very soon, indeed. In fact, I believe we could go on with your part this instant, now that Twilight has redeemed herself.”

Shining Armor huffed at that. “Yeah right, how could she ever redeem herself after what she did?”

“Huh?” Frosty wondered. “What do you mean?”

Asking this immediately made everypony in the room give him a questioning look. Every living pony, that is.

“What do I mean?! WHAT DO I MEAN?! Well, in case you forgot, she wiped out an entire Civilization!” Shining Armor bellowed, making Frosty shrink back with every word thrown at him.

“Uh, yeah… that… Shining, I’m, uh… I’m sorry…” Frosty said apologetically, making Shining Armor calm down and wonder, what that was about. This moment of calm didn’t last very long however, as he quickly started shouting again, this time at Frosty directly.

“What for?! Do NOT tell me that this was all some lie, I swear to the Princess, I will gut you right here!”

Both, Trixie and Safe Count gasped and covered their mouths in shock, as they heard the captain utter such a threat. Normally, such threats were only made by the most dangerous of criminals, so hearing the Captain of the Guard say something like this was utterly unacceptable.

Frosty, however, didn’t seem to care. By now he had regained his composure and was calmly looking at the fuming captain.

“No, don’t worry, I did not lie, I just…” Frosty started, uncomfortably scratching the back of his head. “When I went down to Ponyville to confront her myself and to keep her from committing the greatest mistake in her life, I… noticed something.”

“Which would be?” Shining pressed.

“That I… uh…” Frosty stammered, guiltily looking at Shining Armor, before finally sighing and letting his head hang. “You know… when your sister blasted our hut in the forest, I was… mad to say the least. In fact, I was so utterly mad that I could not stop antagonizing her, so… when I noticed her being nearby when the Changelings were killed, I assumed it was her. However, when I went to her, I found out that she did not know about changelings at all. Furthermore, she hadn’t used any larger amounts of magic within the last few days.” Frosty explained.

“What, does that… does that mean my sister is innocent?” Shining asked, a faint, hopeful smile gracing his lips.

“Most likely, yes.” Frosty answered.

At that, Shining Armor cheered and danced through the room. “YES! My sister is—“ However, he stopped when he remembered what he had said to her in his rage. “Oh no… OH NO! I-I-I’ve got to apologize! I have to make amends, I… oh no…”

“Yes, that would be the best, but before you do that… please let me finish.”

Shining looked at Frosty like he had just ripped him out of a trance. “Huh? What, there’s more?”

“Sadly, yes. And I don’t think that you’re going to like it.” Frosty implied hesitantly. “When I first encountered the Princess, I managed to get a glimpse at her soul and… it was tainted, in a sense. Not by necromantic energies, as Alicorn souls are completely immune to that. It was… something else and I don’t know what. All I know is that it seemed highly malicious.” He then added, bracing himself for another outbreak… that never came.

Shining Armor only nodded slowly as a response, making Frosty blink owlishly in disbelief. He had thought that he would have to forcefully calm him down.

“What?” Shining questioned, when he noticed Frosty’s stare. “Believe it or not, I still remember when you told me that it was either Celestia or Twilight and if you say that it wasn’t Twilight… that leaves only the princess and in all honesty, I… kinda had the suspicion that something was wrong with her all along. Even when removing the things I only know second-hoof, then there are still a few things that I witnessed myself that just… don’t befit her. Her actions have been much more aggressive than what I am used to see from her and her fixiation on killing you only adds to that.” Shining summarized.

“Indeed, which is why we have to take action as soon as possible.” Frosty said.

“Yes, I suggest we gather the Elements and—“ Shining suggested, but was cut off by Frosty.

“No.”

“No? Why? You said yourself that we have to act now!” Shining pointed out.

“Correct, but simply running in there and using the elements isn’t going to work, simply because for all I know she could be immune to them, since she isn’t fully corrupted. Also, as much as I trust all of you, I just can’t have any of you risk your lives for me, when I basically am immortal.” Frosty said.

“Pff, oh yeah great and what do you want us to do then? Sit here and pray for your success? Hah, fat chance.”

“Oh no, nothing like that. Believe it or not, there is actually quite an important role I have for you. You see, even I can’t go head-to-head against a deity, but luckily, said deity doesn’t just generate its massive power out of thin air either. The ponies that worship her give her the power she needs to rule over us all.” Frosty said, moving over to where Trixie was sitting. “This is where you come into play, Trixie. You as a showmare know how to work a crowd and thus can help me spread the word about what has happened. I know, this will likely have pretty harsh effects on her afterwards, but it’s the best option we have.
We will try to rile the ponies up as much as we can, so that they will hopefully go into open protest, which will hopefully be enough to weaken Celestia. Your job, Captain, will be to prevent the protesters from getting past the palace’s outer perimeter and running into their certain demise.” Frosty explained.

“Ah… so my role in this whole plan of yours will be normal guard duty?” Shining Armor questioned.

“Yes, although normally you are protecting what’s inside from the ponies outside. This time, you will be protecting the ponies outside from what’s inside.”

“Alright… I still don’t like this plan though.” Shining Armor agreed reluctantly.

“Me neither, Captain, me neither. However, it’s our only safe option for now.”

“FINALLY! It was about time Trixie finally was told what she was here for!” Trixie complained from where she sat at the large table in the middle of the room.

“Yeah, I know, sorry about that. Anyways, I suppose that is all there is for now. We will start spreading the word tomorrow, so please prepare for that.”

“Yeah yeah, you sound like a teacher, you know that?” Trixie teased, making Frosty chuckle a bit.

“Heh, oh really? In that case: class, you are dismissed for now. Have a safe trip home!” He said in a melodic voice, like a grade school teacher.

Shining Armor was the first to go to the door and as he passes Frosty, he stops and looks down at him for a moment, before sighing.

“I really hope that plan works out, you know?” He said tiredly.

“I hope so too…” Frosty replied.

With no further words spoken, Shining Armor left the room, followed by Trixie and a bit later by Sir Safe Count.

Finally, Frosty and the fillies were the only ones left in the room and when he ascertained that they were really alone, Frosty let out a long sigh and fropped onto his haunches. The fillies came over to him immediately and looked at him with very concerned eyes.

“Frosty? Are you alright?” Scootaloo asked first.

“Yeah… actually no, not really.” He said, running over his face and through his mane with a hoof. “We really need to finally wrap this up as quickly as possible. The web of lies I am weaving is getting tighter and tighter and if I’m not careful, I might trap myself within it.”

“An’ that would be bad?” Applebloom asked.

“Yes, very much so.” Frosty said, chuckling a little.

“Well, in that case, why don’t you let us help you relieve some stress?~” Sweetie purred, pressing herself against Frosty and licking his neck. In response, Frosty grabbed her in his forehooves and pressed a kiss into her neck, eliciting an erotic moan from her. However, he didn’t do anything more and just held her tight afterwards.

“Sorry Sweetie, I’m just… not in the mood right now. Heh, funny, it’s barely afternoon and I’m already…” He started, but was interrupted by a long yawn. “… tired.” He finished.

Sweetie Belle was a bit disappointed that she was denied the love she craved yet again, however her love for Frosty was far more than just physical and so, she thought to herself that she would have to make do with a little less.

“Then how about we just spend the rest of the day cuddling and relaxing a little together? Does that sound good?” She asked, getting nods form her fellow Crusaders and a tired smile from Frosty.

“That sounds like a very good idea. Yeah, let’s do that.” Frosty agreed.

The four of them then left the meeting room and went down the hallway tightly huddled together until a few minutes later, they vanished into their room.

Author's Note

So, here we are. I know this might sound a little sudden to quite a few of you, but we have reached the end of the story. Next chapter will be the Finale and then comes the ending, which I hope to publish on the same day. I hope you all enjoyed this story thus far and I wish you a merry christmas in advance! :twilightsmile:

Equestrian Standoff

Two weeks after Frosty had commenced the last phase of his plan, Twilight and her friends were walking through the streets of Ponyville, sharing a few good laughs. They had spent the past week doing things together to get close again and thus far, it had been working out perfectly.

Twilight, albeit still not believing that Frosty was actually on the good side, had put in her best effort to make amends to her friends and to win them back. She had steered around the topic of Frosty as best as she could thus far, knowing that bringing it up would likely jeopardize her efforts of the past few days.

However, all her efforts threatened to be in vain, when Rainbow spotted a purple baby dragon run towards them.

“Hey Twi, isn’t that Spike who’s running there?” Rainbow asked, directing Twilight’s attention to the running drake before her.

Spike was running as fast as his little legs allowed him to, waving the rolled up paper in his claw to get their attention. Twilight was squinting and trying to determine, what exactly that was.

“Is that… a letter?” She voiced her uncertainty.

“Eh, looks more like a newspaper to me.” Rainbow pointed out.

Spike was huffing and coughing by the time he reached them.

“Thanks for coming towards me so that I don’t have to run through the whole town, y’know?” he manages to sarcastically wheeze, while giving Twilight the Newspaper.

“Sorry spike,” she apologized, “but I was just not expecting you to come running here just to bring me the newspaper. I could’ve read them once I get back.”

“It’s not… because of… newspaper. It’s… Canterlot.” Spike panted, still quite out of breath.

Twilight looks like she still doesn’t understand what Spike means, so he just points a claw at the cover story: “Riots in Canterlot”.

“WHAT?!” All six simultaneously shout, when they read the headline.

“But that’s… why? Who? How?!” Twilight stammers. She quickly reads through the article, but finds neither a specific group that is rioting, nor a reason for them to do so. Overall, it was as if these riots and protests had come up out of nowhere.

“Well, I think that settles where we’re going this afternoon. Come on girls, let`s go!” Twilight orders, galloping ahead towards the station, only to stop again, when she notices that her friends aren’t following.

“Uh… girls?”

“Twi, jus’ ta be clear: this ain’t about Frosty again, is it?” Applejack asked.

“What? Why would this be—“

“Because only a week ago, you were all about Frosty being evil and all that and then you suddenly say you aren’t anymore? I mean, sure, it’s nice that you tried to make amends and all that, but… wounds like these don’t heal so quickly.” Rainbow pointed out.

“I can’t believe I say this, but what Rainbow just said is indeed true, Twilight.” Rarity agreed. “You simply cannot expect us to trust you this quickly again.”

“Girls, please, this isn’t about Frosty, I promise! It’s just that… my parents live in Canterlot and I… I’m afraid they might get caught in the riots.” Twilight said.

“Yeah, we know, but that’s an issue that you could deal with on your own. After all, they’re—“

Just as Rainbow was about to make a point, Spike suddenly belched forth a ball of fire, from within which a scroll bearing the royal seal emerged. Twilight caught the scroll in her magic and unscrolled it, before reading aloud:

“Twilight, you and the Elements are needed in Canterlot post-haste.
-Celestia”

“Alright, it seems now we’ll have to come along, but in all seriousness, I rather would not.” Rarity said.

“I can fully understand that, Rarity, but it says here that we are needed post-haste and since the princess has written it completely informally, I am inclined to think that she really means it.”

“Well then, seems we’re comin’ along anyways.” Applejack groaned, trotting up to Twilight together with the other girls, who all together then galloped to the train station.

At the same time in Canterlot, Celestia could not believe her ears. A guardspony was currently bowing to her and giving her the latest news.

“And… is that confirmed? Riots in all major cities?” She asked with thin breath.

“Yes, princess. The reports just came in.” The guard answered.

“’Tis most concerning, dear sister. If whoever has organized these managed to do so in all cities then that pony has to be most powerful.” Luna cautioned from her seat beside her sister. She had been woken up when the first riots in Canterlot started and had thus far kept herself awake by chewing roasted coffee beans.

“Quite so.” She agreed and turned back to the guard. “Thank you for this report. Now, please tell Captain Shining Armor to come here.”

Without receiving further explanation, the guard bowed and turned around, before running towards the doors. However, just as he reached the doors, they were flung open, hitting him and flinging him into the wall off to the side. The other guards in the room readied their spears, pointing them at the pony that was entering.

“Hellooooo princesses!” Frosty shouted upon his entry. “It has been a while, dear Celestia! How have you been?” He cheerfully greeted, waving a hoof at her. However, his friendly demeanor was heavily jeopardized by the three fillies that had bruises all over their bodies and were wearing accessoires and clothes that were inappropriate for their age, to say the least. Their necks were bound in shackles, which were held by three chains that Frosty was holding in his magic.

“Princess, please help!” the orange one begged.

“Princess, I’m scared!” the light-pink one cried.

“Ah want mah mommy, princess!” the yellow one wailed.

Upon seeing the fillies, Celestia’s gaze grew cold and Luna took on a stance, as if ready to pounce at any moment.

“Free these foals at once, vile scum! Or else we will shred thee into pieces!” Luna threatened.

“Me? Free these fillies? Oh please, why would I do that? After all, we were just… having some fun.” He said in a very perverted tone, while licking the pink one`s neck, which made her cry even more.

Celestia could hear her sister growl beside her like a dog, however she herself managed to remain calmer, which allowed her to see a bit more than her sister in her tunnel vision. Namely, she saw that the guard that had been flung away was now sneaking up on Frosty. Sadly, she knew what result this would bring, even if he succeeded, but the little distraction they would get from it was more than welcome. Celestia also made a mental note to publicly declare that guard to be a hero, upon his funeral.

“It is quite obvious that you are enjoying yourself, Frozen Blood. However your vile campaign will end now! Surrender yourself!” Celesta demanded, hoping to buy a little time for the brave guard.

“Me? Surrender? Pffff, hahaha, why would I do that? I am the one holding all the cards here!” Frozen Blood laughed.

Come on, just a little closer!

“It may seem like that, yes, but we still outnumber you by far! You have no chance in a fight! I say it again, surrender now and we might be merciful!” Celestia commanded again.

Almost theeere!

“Pff, yeah, right. You mean just as merciful as when--- AAAH, you son of a BITCH!”

The guardspony stabbed his spear into Frozen Blood’s torso, once he was close enough, resulting in just the tiniest break in concentration, in which his magic dissipated and the fillies were freed.

“Come here, fillies! We will keep you safe!” Celestia shouted and the fillies didn’t need to be told twice. As soon as their stupor had faded, they ran as fast as they could – which was pretty fast, considering the weight of these shackles – and hid behind Celestia’s legs.

Frozen Blood, in his rage, slammed everypony in the room against the nearest wall, with the exception of the princesses and the fillies hiding behind them.

“Surrender, Frozen Blood! We have freed your hostages, you have no more room for negotiation! If you don’t surrender this time, then we will destroy you!” Luna demanded.

Frozen Blood growled at them for a moment, but the growling slowly turned into a chuckle and then into outright laughter.

“Princess, I think you should re-assess your position, as I think it is you who should surrender!” He laughed.

“…what?”

--A few minutes earlier…--

Frosty and the fillies were standing in front of the Throne Room, together with a zombie-guard and were preparing for the final and most crucial phase.

“Sooo… your plan is that we wear these outfits and play it as if we’re some foalnapped fillies. This fellow there is going in beforehand, delivers some report about more riots and stuff and later helps in our ‘escape’ from you, by faking a sneak attack, correct?” Scootaloo summed up.

“Yep, that’s pretty much it.”

“Alright… but please don’t hold these chains too tightly, okay? They’re already quite heavy.”

“Oh, you can pull my chain as hard as you want, Frosty.~” Sweetie purred. “Just imagining you pulling on these chains makes me feel tingly and these outfits only add to it… Not to mention the dry spell you’ve been putting us on.” Sweetie moaned, pressing herself against Frosty.

“Heh, don’t worry, Sweetie. Once this is over, we can have some… fun time.” Frosty suggested, kissing Sweetie’s neck.

“Oh, why wait? Wouldn`t you think that a stream of your thick, virile juice dripping out of my tight, underage slit would make this getup just that much more convincing?~~”

“Maybe, but you know me, I hold quite a while and we don’t have much time anymore.” Frosty said with a wink. “Sorry, but you’ll have to wait a little.” He then said and signalled the guard to enter the Throne Room.

--Back to Present—

Celestia looked down just in time to see a yellow dart kick away her left front leg and the same happened to the rear right, making her fall onto her belly, where she was then rolled to her side and tied up. Simultaneously, an orange dart shot away from her and into her sister’s face, knocking her out cold.

“Well done, girls!” Frosty complimented. “That was an absolutely brilliant display!”

“Thanks, Frosty!” Applebloom smiled, while holding Celestia down, just in case that the ties weren’t enough.

“What? What just… oh no, I should’ve known that you would use some dirty trickery to fool us!” Celestia seethed.

“’Trickery’? Oh please, an effective ruse is more than just mere trickery, dear Celestia and you have to admit that it was quite successful. I have successfully overwhelmed the rulers of these lands and thus conquered all of Equestria.”

“Grr, you will have to kill us before we make you the ruler of equestria!” Celestia seethed, writhing in her ties.

Frosty chuckled and leaned over Celestia to look her directly in the eyes.

“Oh, is that so?”

Author's Note

Yes, I know, very bad cliffhanger, well see ya next week!

Just kidding :)
There are three different endings to this story, posted as seperate chapters. If you're among the first few who read this chapter and can't see them, it could be that you were simply too fast for me to post them. Just reload the page, they should be there then. ;)

Chaos Ending

Frosty chuckled darkly, but then turned away and walked a few steps towards the throne. “However, be assured that I do not desire to rule Equestria.”

Sweetie, Applebloom and Scootaloo looked very confused at that statement. Hadn’t that been the whole point of all this?

“Wait, didn’t you want to conquer Equestria and all that? Wasn’t that the whole point?” Scootaloo asked out loud and the other fillies nodded.

“Indeed. I wanted to conquer, not to rule. I have conquered Equestria and that was all I wanted…” Frosty turned back around and faced the fillies and Celestia. “Or, perhaps not all. I also wanted to teach a certain somepony a lesson about what might happen when you just blindly attack everypony who looks suspicious.” He shot a glare at the tied-up Celestia, who immediately averted her gaze and seemed a little embarrassed, surprisingly.

“That being said… I did not say that this is the end of it.” Frosty implied, going to his fillies and preparing to depart.

“What do you mean by that?!” Celestia demanded.

“Oh, can’t you figure it out yourself? Riots in the streets, two entire races wiped off the map, your most powerful defence split into disputes and your country in disarray. Can’t you feel the Chaos building up everywhere around us?” Frosty chuckled and Celestia went wide-eyed, when she caught up with what Frosty was implying. He leaned down to her and whispered into her ear: “Can’t you hear the statue start to crack?”

With a last, dark chuckle, Frosty and his fillies left the throne room and once they were out, the ties cut themselves and Celestia could get up. Luna and the guards didn’t take much longer to wake up again as well and looked just as confused as relieved that they got to live another day.

Luna’s joy over that didn’t last long, however, as she noticed her sister staring out the window into the garden, where a certain statue was suddenly looking very brittle.

A few minutes later, the Elements of Harmony burst through the door and saw the two princesses staring out.

“Princess! We came as quickly as we could!” Twilight panted, when she arrived at the foot of the staircase that led to the throne.

“And I am very thankful for that.” Celestia said absent-mindedly, not looking at them. “I am very sorry, Twilight, but it seems I will have to send you all into immediate danger yet again.” She said apologetically.

Twilight and her friends shared an insecure look, before stepping up to the princesses and looking out the window as well, where a tall statue in the middle of the garden… was not just a statue anymore.

Far beyond the gates of Canterlot, in a hut in the Everfree Forest, four foals sat at a table, together with a zebrican enchantress and enjoyed a few cups of tea.

“An interesting story, indeed, even if I cannot agree with most of your methods.” Zecora mused. “So, what do you intend to do now?” She asked.

Frosty took a few sips of his tea, enjoying the flavour the skilled druid had brought into the brew. “We will emigrate to Zebrica. There, we won`t have to worry about anypony making a fuzz about our necromancy. The only problem with that is that they won’t let us pass, because we are foals.” Frosty said.

“Ah, in that case I think I can help you.” Zecora said, getting up and taking a small bottle from one of the shelves and giving it to Frosty. “Here, this is a potion of aging. It will make your bodies more adult, but your mind will stay unaltered.” She explained.

“Thanks Zecora, that’s exactly what we needed and given that we don’t really have a metabolism anymore, this potion might just last forever.” Frosty thanked, taking a sip and giving the bottle to the fillies.

“Not forever, no, but at least until the potion spoils, which would be… about five years? Six maybe.” Zecora mused.

Meanwhile, the potion took effect. Frosty and the fillies were rapidly gaining height and their facial features and muscle mass changed along with it into four fully grown adults.

“And now, you are adults... oooh, and quite hoofsome ones at that.” Zecora giggled.

“Thanks, Zecora! You really helped us out!” Frosty thanked.

“There is no need to thank me for helping a friend in need.” She waved off.

“Alright. Well, it seems the time has come for us to depart. Farewell, Zecora. I’m sure we will see eachother again. Feel welcome to visit us whenever you want.” Frosty invited with a small smile.

“I will certainly find the time to do so. Farewell.”

“Bye, Zecora!” The fillies said in unison, waving at the Zebra mare, before the four now-adults left the hut and made their way to their new home.

Author's Note

Should I ever decide to write a sequel, it would most likely be based on this ending, simply because it's the easiest basis to work off of. :twilightsheepish:

Tyrant Ending

Author's Note

The Porn Ending. Of course there is a porn Ending, what did you expect? Also:

WARNING: Porn Ending

The following ending, yadayada, 18+, yadayada, the joke's getting old.

Tyrant Ending

“You know what? I think this is a very viable option indeed.” Frosty said, before stabbing his horn into Celestia’s throat. The alicorn princess writhed in pain and coughed out blood, until finally, she fell limp.

When the Elements reached Canterlot, they found it to be completely quiet. TOO quiet. Not a single soul was on the streets and the stores seemed all closed for some reason.

They pushed on into the palace where they found that the guards were still guarding the palace as normal. To the eye it all seemed right, but… it all just felt wrong. Something was so terribly wrong about all this that Twilight had almost turned around.

She better had.

Once they reached the Throne Room, they found out what was wrong. Frosty was sitting on the throne, the fillies on his lap engaging in frivolous acts… and the heads of the former princesses impaled on the backrest above his head.

“Frosty, what…” Twilight began, only now spotting the impaled heads. She had to force her breakfast back down a second time and averted her gaze. Her friends, however, found that quite hard, as their looks first fell on Sweetie Belle, who was currently sitting on Frosty’s lap with his cock all the way inside her.

They all covered their eyes and blushed bright red and if one was to look a Rainbow’s hind legs, one would see that her fur suddenly was soaking wet.

“Sweetie, has neither of you ever heard of decency?” Rarity reprimanded.

“Yes, but—hng- why should he worry about that, if – aaahn – if he’s your emperor?” Sweetie moaned, hopping up and down on Frosty’s lap, making her belly inflate and deflate again with each time his dick went in and out.

The word emperor rang in Twilight’s head and together with the image of the dead princesses formed into white hot rage that filled her mind.

“You will pay for everything you did, Frozen Blood!” She shouted and called upon the elements to lend them their power. The six started glowing white and floated up into the air.

“Oh, so now you’re going to use the elements on me? How predictable. However, I think you have forgotten that your little friendship ex machina there will hit your sisters first.” Frosty laughed, beckoning Scootaloo and Applebloom to stop licking his balls and jump up onto his lap, where they were now licking Sweetie’s clit and his shaft.

Applejack was the first to break the connection, as she saw her little sister and with her, the other connections fell as well like dominoes. When Twilight hit the ground as last, Sweetie Belle was just about to plop down on Frosty again. Frosty met her halfway with a thrust of his own, making her scream in pleasure, as the feeling of him filling her up made her cum.

Her little belly bulged more and more as she was filled like a water balloon. His balls contracted with each time they sent more sperm up into the filly, to the point where it was already squeezing out of her again.

By the time Frosty stopped filling her, Sweetie was nothing more than a spasming, panting mess impaled atop his meatpole. He dislodged himself with a wet splurch, making the excess cum spill like a waterfall from the filly’s abused pussy.

She fell onto her side, leaning against Scootaloo and pulling her into a deep kiss, as Frosty got up and walked towards the element bearers, who had gotten up by now.

Twilight ignored the frivolous acts of the fillies before her. Her mind was racing, trying to come up with a new plan. However, the best that she could do for now was a tactical retreat to regroup and plan anew.

She bowed before the colt and backed off slowly. “We… acknowledge your rule, your majesty. Please, excuse our foul behaviour. We shall now leave you alone.” She said, backing off towards the door and the others did so likewise. However, they soon realized that their fates were already sealed, when their rears pressed into the closed doors.

Twilight looked at the doors in shock and only then noticed that Frosty was standing right in front of her.

“I’m afraid I cannot let you do that.” He said. “You see: now that I have risen to power, there is only one thing that could still threaten it…” He deviously grinned at the bearers. “And that is you. However, don’t be afraid. I won’t kill you. Though, one could argue that the fate I have planned for you is… far worse than death.”

Emperor Frozen Blood and his three wives made their way into the secret dungeons only they were allowed to enter. Inside, six heavily worn out mares were lying on the ground. No wonder, really, given that each one of them had just given birth the seventh time in a row.

Despite this, they all reacted properly, once they spotted their monarch in the doorway. They all dragged themselves over to him and without any command necessary, they starting working his dick. No wonder, given that they were all magically forced to stay in heat and his conditioning and brainwashing on them was certainly also showing effect as well.

“I am amazed again and again at the obedience of your broodmares, Frosty.” Sweetie chuckled. “It almost makes me jealous to think that they will receive more attention than me today… but only almost.”

“Don’t worry, Sweetie, you three will get your treatment, once we are done down here.” Frosty said, before turning his attention to the six mares below him. “So, who of you wants to be first?” he asked.

The reaction he got was immediate. All six mares hurried out from below him and turned their rears towards him. They pressed their chest to the ground and raised their butts high, swaying it back and forth to seem as appealing as possible. Long robbed of the mental capacity to speak, heavily panting with their tongues sticking out, this was their way of begging Frosty that they may be first.

“Oh, what a choice.” He said, as he stepped forth.

The Arrival

It was a busy day in the ‚Frilly Filly‘. The mares at work were going to and fro, servicing their ‚guests‘, who were mostly nobles, with the odd Gangster Boss mixed in-between. Given the nature of the establishment, it was only natural for those closer to the entrance to wonder about the entrance of four foals, three fillies and one colt.

„Whoa.“ Scootaloo exclaimed as they entered the large main room. „This place is HUGE!“

„Yeah… and tha dresses those mares wear make me understand what you meant earlier about this place…“ Applebloom added.

Truly, given their purpose, all the mares working there wore clothes not to hide anything, but on the contrary, to even draw MORE attention to their naughty parts.

„Indeed. Certainly not a place for sweet little fillies like you are and neither a place where a colt like me should be found. However, we can’t worry about things like these now. After all we came here for something important.” The colt stated, before moving down the middle alley with the CMCs falling into step behind him.

All three of the fillies wore dresses which were fitting to their owner’s coat in colour, while the colt wore a simple black business suit with a fedora hat. Their outfits were one of the reasons why the guests that noticed them weren’t all that alarmed about their presence, even if it got them an odd look or another. After all, adults with the body size of a foal were rare, sure, but not unheard of.

The four made their way further into the establishment, heading straight for a table, which was already occupied. Its occupant was a large, brown stallion. Officially, his name was Safe Count and he was an accountant in the royal financial department. Unofficially, however, he was the head of the biggest Mafia in Equestria. His Influence stretched from Canterlot far into the major cities like Las Pegasus or Manehattan. He was also a regular at the ‘Frilly Filly’ and the mares here knew about his true identity. Did they care? Oh yes, they certainly did, or else there probably wouldn’t be hundreds of them swarming all around him.

Spotting his target, the colt picked up his pace and the CMC followed close behind and when they finally reached the Stallion’s table, they sat down directly opposite of him, which of course immediately grabbed his attention.

“What? Three fillies and a colt? Hah, how did you even get in here? Ah, doesn’t matter, what do you want? I don’t sell ice cream and I won’t donate to some orphanage, just so you know.”

“Good day, mister Safe Count. Do not worry, we are not here to waste your time with some donation or anything of that sort. Rather, I wanted to propose a deal. The… off-the-books kind of deal, if you know what I mean…” The colt said, smirking at the stallion directly in front of him.

“What? What’s that supposed to mean? Who are you?” The stallion asked, not amused in the slightest.

“Oh come on, mister Safe Count, we know that you aren’t just some accountant. Like I said, we want to strike up a deal with you and I promise you that it will be beneficial to both sides.” The colt answered.

“I told you to tell me your name, kiddo. If you know as much as you claim then you certainly know that I am not one to play games with.” Safe Count half-threatened, though the colt remained calm.

“Oh please, I just told you this is going to be off the books. Let’s just keep my name off the record for this.”

“No, I said I WANT YOUR NAME!!!” Safe Count shouted, slamming a hoof on the table, making Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom flinch back and scoot closer to their colt, who had remained completely calm.

“Well, well…” He started. “If you insist, I suppose it can’t be helped. I shall give you my name. My name is… Frozen Blood.”

As soon as the name was spoken, the room went completely silent. The mere mention of this name had caused every bit of conversation to be cut and Safe Count was now the one to flinch back.

Frozen Blood only chuckled from the reaction his name was causing and took a moment to think back to where this journey began…

It was a sunny day in the Everfree. The Manticores were stealthily hunting, the birds were singing their songs and in the middle of it all, a colt opened his eyes for the first time.

James didn’t know what happened at first. He thought he had gone to sleep inside of his house and not on the balcony. Furthermore, seeing a sunny sky in a British morning was most unusual. Nevertheless, he didn’t think much of it at first. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, not noticing at the moment that his hands had become hooves, and tried to stand up. However, he found that standing on two feet had suddenly become very difficult. So difficult in fact that he got up and immediately toppled over again, faceplanting himself into the dirt.

“Ow. What a great way to start a day. Well, at least my cold seems to be gone.” He remarked to himself, not knowing why he said that out loud.

“Wait… Why is there grass in my room?”

He lifted his head and looked around. All he saw was trees. Trees everywhere. Well, and a small lake that was in the clearing that he woke up in. Then, it suddenly clicked with him.

“Oh, what, seriously? I died from a blasted cold? Oh you can’t be serious!” He complained to whatever deity had written his fate. “I really hope this afterlife is worth its price, ‘cause that was not cool at all!” He then added, pointing an arm into the sky. Though, when it came into his field of view, he stopped and looked at it more closely.

“A hoof?” He noted. “Wait a second…”

He looked at his other three extremities and found that all of them were indeed hooves. He got up to all fours and noted how fascinatingly easy it was for him to keep his head in an upright position. Almost as if it was natural.

He looked behind himself and saw just what he had expected to see: his human body was now gone and replaced with the body of an animal, though he couldn’t quite place which one. He looked around and noticed the lake again and, with a very awkward first attempt, he walked/wobbled over to see his mirror image.

“Alright, this might just do as a make-up.” He stated, as he looked into the water and saw that he had indeed become a pony from the MLP-verse. A light-gray unicorn colt with a white mane to be exact.

“Alright, I’m a unicorn colt… do I have a name?” He asked himself again, looking into the sky and thinking for a moment, until a name was practically shoved into his brain. “Frozen Blood? Well, that’s certainly an off name for someone from the MLP-verse, but well… I’ll just go with it, I suppose?”

He sat there for a moment, looking at his image in the water thinking of his new name. Though, he soon found another problem that he had to face.

“Though… as much as I love the show, I don’t know what I am supposed to do here… hey, maybe my cutie mark can… oh, sure, why can’t things be easy for once?” He asked rhetorically, as he turned around and saw that he was – surprise, surprise – a blank-flank.

“Well, I guess I’ll have to find something else to do then…” He stated, looking upwards and thinking, before his face slowly shifted into a devious smile. “Oooohhh, I know… How about I try to conquer Equestria? That should certainly be something.” He stated before himself.

With his mind made up, he pondered his first steps and the logical first thing that came to mind was to determine, where exactly he was. He looked around at the scenery beyond the trees and, to his delight, could actually spot Canterlot sitting on a mountainside in the distance and with the help of the background imagery from the show, he quickly determined the direction that Ponyville had to be in. That and that he was likely in the middle of the Everfree.

“Alright, so I’m in the Everfree… Well, since that’s likely not a place I want to be in, especially as a colt, I’d likely best make haste to reach Ponyville, wouldn’t I?”

Trees, trees, even more trees. It had been quite a while since James, or Frozen Blood, by his new name, had started his journey. Journey in this case being meant literally, as he was still wandering through the Everfree.

Trees, trees and more trees yet. There were still no signs of Ponyville though. It was the closest settlement he could think of and it was thus only logical for him to head that way, albeit it wasn’t the only reason. After all, since he was only a colt and alone at that, brute-forcing his way to the top would be quite difficult. Instead, he knew he would have to build up some influence within Equestria and then make his move onto the throne and what better way to build up influence than to befriend the elements of Harmony and Celestia’s protégé at that? That is, if she was in Ponyville yet. There was, after all, the possibility that he had landed here before Twilight would arrive, or even worse: in another era all together.

Trees, some buildings, even- wait what?! Finally, there were signs of civilization in front of him! He released a relieved sigh, as his long march would finally find its end.

He made his way into town, taking in all the buildings and quickly identifying it as indeed being Ponyville. Now, since he didn’t see a giant crystal castle, the first thing he needed to check on was the tree library. If Twilight was there then he definitely had something to work with. If not… well, he’d think about that, when the time came.

He walked through the marketplace, noticing that Applejack was selling her apples at a stall and that there was also a cloud floating by with a Rainbow tail hanging from it. Thus, he determined that he was at least in the right era. What he didn’t notice, however, as he made his way to the library, were the strange looks and even disapproving glares he got from the local townsponies.

He made his way over to the Golden Oaks Library and was just about to open the door, when he suddenly heard a deep male voice behind him.

“Excuse me, young colt?”

Frozen Blood turned around and looked at who called out to him. It was a white unicorn stallion, wearing what seemed to be a variation of the standard guard’s armor. A local policepony maybe?

“Uh… do you mean me?” Frozen asked back.

“Yes, I mean you. Say, what are you doing here at this time of day?”

“Uhm, I wanted to check up on a few things in the library. I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?” Frozen tried to remain as passive as he could, though it was getting hard for him, since he definitely wanted to know if Twilight was there and this bobby was definitely not something he wanted to deal with.

“Well, that depends… To my knowledge, school is in session right now.”

Realization hit Frozen like a brick. School, of course! He was a colt, so he had to go to school!

“Uh, hehe, there has to be a misunderstanding, sir. I have actually left school two years ago and am now studying. That’s one of the reasons why I need to check the library, actually.”

Heheh, smart move, I’ve got to say. He praised himself.

“Oh, really? In that case, you should have a student ID, shouldn’t you?”

Or not…

“Umm, yeah, that’s the thing: my student ID is in there and…”

“You can stop right there, kid. I’ve heard these excuses way too often already to actually believe them. Now, I’m afraid I’ve got to tell your parents about this. So, be a nice colt and tell me where I can find them, okay?”

Oh crap… “My parents? Uhm, uh, they are…” Frozen Blood stammered. He needed to come up with something quick, or else he might—

“Ah, you know what: I’ll let Cheerilee deal with them. For now, I’d best bring you back to school. Maybe we can make it in time for afternoon class.” The policepony said, leaving no room for argument.

“B-But—whoa!” Frozen tried to argue anyways, only for a blue aura to grab hold of him and float him into the air.

Oh, god dammit. He cursed to himself, as he saw the Library slowly move away.

In the Ponyville School, the bell had just stopped ringing and Cheerilee was scribbling something onto the chalkboard. She planned on teaching her students about the many strengths of the different pony types today and how they came to found Equestria. However, just as she turned around to address the class, somepony knocked on the door.

“Uh, yes, please?” She called out, to which the door opened and the local sheriff entered.

“Miss Cheerilee, I’ve come to bring you this colt I found skipping class today.”

“A colt skipping class?” Cheerilee repeated. She looked over to her class and counted through. Diamond Tiara, Silverspoon, Snips, Snails, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Applebloom…

After she had gone through her whole list and was certain that nopony was missing, she turned back to address the stallion. “Um, excuse me, but I’m not missing… any… pony…” Only to find that he had already left, leaving her a light gray colt with white mane and tail, who looked just as confused as she was.

“Um… hello there, young colt… You seem to be in a rather strange situation, aren’t you?” She tentatively asked.

“Yeah, that’s… certainly one way to put it.” The colt replied, earning him a few giggles from the front row.

“Uhhh, yeah, anyways…” Cheerilee turned to her class. “I… guess you can all welcome a new member to our class today. Say, young colt, what’s your name?”

Oh, this is gonna be good. Frozen prepared himself for the storm that was undoubtedly about to commence.

“My name is Frozen Blood.” He said, and the class responded by innocently singing “Hello, Frozen Blood!”, while Cheerilee almost toppled over when she heard the name.

This didn’t go unnoticed by Frozen. “Yeah, it’s a pretty weird name, isn’t it?” He asked, though he truly only wanted to tease Cheerilee a little.

“Yeah... Uh, I mean, no, not at all!” She lied, forcing a smile at him. “Now… how about you take a seat and we start class now, huh?”

Frozen nodded and looked around. He saw that there was only one seat left empty in the room. Directly behind Applebloom and next to… Diamond Tiara…

Oh, bollocks… Given that I’m blank, this is likely not going to be fun… He thought, as he took the seat.

“Hey there, Frozen Blood, Ahm Applebloom! Ah see that y’all ain’t havin’ a cutie mark neither! How ‘bout yer join the Cutie Mark Crusaders and tryna search fer it?” Applebloom asked him straight away, though, seeing as the other two crusaders were also looking at him, she had likely already discussed this with them.

Hey… those three are the sisters of the Elements, aren’t they? Huh, maybe being forced to go to school wasn’t that bad of a thing to happen to me… Frozen thought to himself, before he replied happily.

“Yeah, sure!”

Author's Note

A new Idea that came to mind while working on Equestria: The Afterlife. I hope you are thrilled as to how he's gonna accomplish his goals ^^

Also: Commodus pt.1

Psychological Pain and Ridiculous Romances

Groggily, Frosty stood up the next morning. Sunday. Another day that he could – theoretically - spend experimenting around with his necromancy. The only Problem was that there were some slight complications that needed to be addressed… complications that he himself had brought about.

The day before, when Zecora had come into town and he had made first contact with her, he had also done something that he came to fully grasp only when he and the rest of the Apple Family returned for dinner that evening.

It wasn’t the character development that he had denied them through all this, mind you, but rather what he had done before he even met Zecora. He had chewed out Applejack. He had put her into place in a way that even her own mother (probably) never had before. Sure, he managed to get his point across that way, but at the same time, he had probably ruined his relation to Applejack, or at least severely damaged it.

Applejack, the Element of Honesty, one of the Elements of Harmony. One of the six mares he needed to know on his side, lest he risk being turned to stone once he started pursuing his goals in earnest.

Luckily, these Ponies were pretty forgiving, as far as social mishaps and the likes go, so he likely just needed to apologize to her. However, that exactly was the problem. The chewing-out he had given her didn’t just come from nowhere and the moment alone didn’t suffice to cause such a reaction. No, the things he said that day came from deeper within his own mind, from his own past experiences with xenophobia…

James was born in a small village in South Africa. His parents were farmworkers, who were severely underpaid for all the work they did and they knew that. However, when you live under such circumstances, no matter how much money the government pours into modernizations and financial aids, it is unlikely that you will ever get out of there. No matter how much financial aid you are supposed to be getting, there is always that one corrupt guy who just marks your batch as delivered and then just takes the money for himself… but that was just how it all worked. Everyone knew and yet no one did anything.

However, that was all meant to change, when one day, his mother came out with a surprise. On his twentieth birthday, his mother revealed that she had been saving money for the past few years, until that day. She wanted only the best for her son, wanted to give him an opportunity to escape this horrid mess that was their home and so, she had saved up enough money to let him study abroad.

Needless to say, James was absolutely ecstatic. That very same day, he sent applications to almost every university he could think of and, a few months later, he actually found that he had been accepted! And so, after a very hearty goodbye at the airport, he went off to study in London, the heart of the empire, where the streets are made of gold – or so they say.

Now, Great Britain is generally not hostile towards strangers, mind you. In fact, it actually is pretty welcoming, or at least indifferent towards them. However, even the most sophisticated system and the most optimally designed society has its black sheep… and James was so unfortunate to end up right in the midst of them. A whole university full of black sheep. The students, the teachers, the other staff members and likely even the principal himself.

He didn’t remember the name of the university. Not that he couldn’t, mind you, but he didn’t want to – too many painful memories connected to the name to be worth the thought.

And not just psychologically painful, but physically as well. Sometimes, he would reach his small apartment only barely alive, covered from top to bottom in bruises, cuts and sometimes even having broken bones. He tried reporting it to the police, but when everyone who could possibly be a witness denies having seen anything then that is also for naught. Even the hundreds upon hundreds of CCTV Cameras that lay on his way home never caught a glimpse of the abuse he had been subjected to.

Naturally, this all had a negative effect, not only on his health, but also on his grades and, to top it all off, there was also another factor that he had to deal with: The climate. Compared to his South African home, moving to London was like moving into a fridge. It was cold. Way colder than he was used to and to make it worse, it would rain almost every day, making him very vulnerable to the plethora of new viruses and bacteria that he wasn’t immune to.

It wasn’t only his grades that suffered greatly under the abuse, however. And while he could pride himself with a will that was – for now – strong enough to resist, his body was not, a whole lifetime in poverty having left him frail and weak to begin with. And so it came that one day, he would come home feeling slightly sick, with a light feeling of pressure in his head, a runny nose and a feeling of drowsiness.

The common cold, for a born European a harmless disease, had easily passed his body’s already weakened defences and would ultimately, only 6 hours after the first symptoms had cropped up, be his demise.

Frosty groaned in discomfort, as he could hear his classmates celebrating his death in his mind, the news of it quickly being spread throughout the whole university like a funny joke. To say that it made him sick would be an understatement.

He couldn’t forgive Applejack just like that. Not after he had actually felt where xenophobia could lead in the end.

‘But at the same time, you have to get clear with her if you want to continue pursuing your goals.’ His own mind reminded him. ‘Also, mom always told you that, no matter how much you hate someone, in the end that hatred will harm you and only you.’

He was so engrossed in his own musings that he almost didn’t notice the knocks on his door and as he went to open it, he found Applebloom standing on the other side.

“Hey, Frosty. Ya din’t come down fer breakfast, so we were wonderin’ where ya’ve been…” She said, as soon as the door cracked open. However, then she noticed the almost pained look on him and began to worry. “Frosty? What’s th’ matter? Is it b’cause of yesterday?”

Frosty nodded absent-mindedly. “Yeah. Sorry, it just… it brought some very bad memories back into mind and… I guess it’s still affecting me a bit.”

Applebloom gave a long, understanding nod. “Oh… do ya… wanna talk ‘bout it?” She asked him, to which, after short contemplation, he answered:

“Yes, might as well…”

He opened the door a bit wider to allow Applebloom access, before closing it again. They both sat down side by side on his bed, before Frosty began to explain vaguely.

“You know… back before I came here, I met quite a few peop— ponies who… weren’t really nice.” He took a short breath and then continued on. “You know… the world out there isn’t as nice as it’s always made to seem. Some are lucky, like you. They have a good family, always have something to eat and they have friends… I, however, had none of that for a long time. There was no one who would protect me when I got hurt and food was only very scarce, even though I lived in a rich city… It wasn’t pretty, but I got by. I could always scavenge for food if I didn’t have any and shelter wasn’t really a problem. What was a problem, however, was this constant xenophobia. I looked different, so I had to be evil – period. It really is amazing what a normally pacifist society can come up with when they’re given the opportunity…”

Frosty hung his head slightly forward, falling into silence.

“Ah dunno what ya’ve seen out there, Frosty…” Applebloom said after a while. “An’ ah dunno what these ponies did t’you that you’re hurtin’ so much… but ah know that Applejack ain’t one o’ them.”

Frosty sighed. “Yeah, I know, Applebloom. It’s just… I didn’t mind her being slightly anxious about Zecora, you know? What really bugged me was that she wanted to keep us from making contact as well.”

“She wanted t’ keep us safe. She was afraid that Zecora would do something t’ us. She has already admitted that it was stupid, but… Ah guess she was just stubborn back then.” Applebloom explained.

“’Back then’? Huh, makes it sound like it’s already been years since it happened.”

“Yeah… maybe ya should treat it that way? Maybe ya should just leave it behind ya?” She offered.

“I’m sorry, Applebloom, but I just can’t get over what happened – yesterday as well as before I came here.”

“But ahm not askin’ ya to ‘get over it’…” Frosty suddenly looked up at Applebloom, who was seemingly staring off into space. “All ah’m asking ya is t’ forgive mah sister. Ya don’t need to forget what she did fer that… just be okay with it, tell yerself that it was a mistake and see that she’s sorry.”

She looked over at Frosty and smiled at him. “We all really like you, Frosty, and we will all forgive all tha things you do wrong… but in turn, we ask you t’ also fergive us.”

A small smile appeared on Frosty’s face and, before she knew it, Applebloom found herself in a hug with him.

“Thanks, Applebloom. I like you too.”

A blush formed on Appleblooms face from the sudden close contact and she barely managed to squeak out a reply. “Y-yeah, yer welcome.”

Frosty let her go and jumped off the bed. “Now, if you would excuse me, I have an apology to make.” Before he then left the room, leaving Applebloom sitting rosy-cheeked on his bed.

“Uh… yeah.”

“So… what have you called us here for?” Scootaloo asked, when she, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom sat in the Clubhouse together that evening.

“Yeah, uhm… y’all remember when Frosty touched us, right? That weird feelin’?” Applebloom started.

“Ugh, yeah, but I thought we’ve already shared everything we knew? Wait… did you find something?” Scootaloo interjected.

“Uhm… maybe. Ah think, this weird feeling might be… love.” Applebloom explained, making the other two fillies in the room go slack-jawed.

“R-Really? You think it might be love?” Sweetie asked. “But… but I thought love only grew over a long time. We only know Frosty for… two weeks I think. Maybe a bit longer?”

“Yeah, what makes you think that?” Scootaloo joined in.

“Well… every time ah think ‘bout him, ah feel so… warm…”

“Yeah, we know that already. Anything more?” Scootaloo interrupted.

“Uh, and… when he touches me, ah feel… funny. Like… ah don’t want him t’ stop and ah wanna hug him… kinda.”

“And that makes you think that you love him?” Scootaloo asked sceptically.

“Well… yeah. Ah mean, imagine him hugging y’all, alright?”

“O… kay...?”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle both closed their eyes for a moment, before opening them again at the same time with a slight blush on their faces.

“Okay, I think I see your point.” Scootaloo said.

“But is that actually love?” Sweetie asked. “I mean, can we really be sure?”

“Ah dunno… have ya ever been in love? Ah haven’t…” Applebloom asked and the other two fillies shook their heads in response.

“Maybe we should… you know… just wait for a bit? See how it all turns out?” Sweetie offered, to which Scootaloo and Applebloom just looked at each other and shrugged.

“Yeah… not that there’s anything else we can do…”

A special Birthday Party

Twilight rubbed her temple with her forehooves, while five mares and one filly were looking at her expectantly.

“Now, let’s recap all this:” She started. “You –“ She pointed at Tiara. “- are some kind of a sleeper agent he created while you were – quote – ‘having adult fun’ and now you can feel his presence. You three –“ She pointed at Rainbow, Rarity and Applejack. “ – are still worried about your sisters, so when she came to you with this revelation, you decided to go and search for him and you two – “ She pointed at Pinkie and Fluttershy. “ – came along because you wanted to help for varying reasons. Anything I missed?”

“Well, we had the idea to search for him before Tiara came in, but everything else seems alright.” Rainbow corrected.

“Great, thank you, Rainbow. Now, firstly: He cheated on your sisters, how come you are okay with that?”

“Oh, umm, well… technically it wasn’t him that cheated… when he went into the forest, I was the one who followed him in and then I kinda… forced him to… you know, and—“ Tiara defended, before being interrupted by Applejack.

“Don’t get me wrong, Twi. Ah’m mighty darn angry ‘bout it an’ Ah’m gonna chew him worse than Wynona does her chewtoys, but fer that ah gotta find him first.” Applejack said seriously, before sighing and letting her head hang. “That an’ ah wanna see ‘em again. Applebloom and Frosty. Ah can’t help it, ya know? Even though we ain’t biologically related, he’s still mah son.”

“Yes, that’s just the thing! You aren’t biologically related, so why are you still feeling so strongly for him? He might still be controlling you somehow!” Twilight argued.

“Ah know, but no matter which perspective, we ain’t solvin’ any problems bah jus’ standin’ around an’ doin’ nothin’! Everything would be better, if we jus’ went an’ searched fer him!” Applejack argued back.

“Maybe, but we can search as much as we want if we only have a vague sense of his presence to work with!”

“Uh, actually I can pretty much pinpoint his location.” Tiara chimed in.

Twilight seemingly wanted to argue again, but stopped before she even said a word. Instead, she seemed to think about something for a moment, before looking over to Applejack and saying:”Okay, fine. We’re going to search for him. We are meeting here at sunrise tomorrow and Tiara will lead us the way to wherever he is hiding. Any objections?” Twilight finished and looked around into a group of relieved and smiling faces.

“Ah don’t have any.” Applejack said and the others agreed. When everything was said and done, everypony left the Library, except for Applejack, who went up to Twilight and gave her a friendly hug.

“Thanks, Twi… fer givin’ him a chance.” She said when she loosened the hug.

“Oh no, Applejack: I have to thank you for giving me this opportunity.”

Frosty was sneaking through the tight alleys around the Canterlot Guard Base, searching for something he knew he was most likely to find here. He rounded a corner and hid close to the entrance, patiently waiting until finally, his prey came into sight.

A young lieutenant came sauntering down the road, passing by the alley Frosty was hiding in, giving Frosty the opportunity he wanted.

“Sir!” He pleaded in the most childish and helpless voice he could muster.

The lieutenant spun around and looked at the young colt before him. Frosty had dyed his mane in a dull blue and covered his Cutie Marks with thick splotches of dirt, ash and dust, so he wouldn’t be immediately recognized.

“What is it, little colt?” The lieutenant asked without suspecting anything.

“M-My mom… she’s… she needs help!” Frosty pleaded as miserably as he could, while pointing to the silhouette of a mare that was laying in the alley behind him.

“Oh dear Celestia!” The lieutenant exclaimed, before rushing towards the young mare that was laying on the ground and only very shallowly breathing.

“Ma’am, are you okay?” He asked quickly, while performing a first aid spell.

The mare looked up to him with a very weak look that quickly turned into a victorious smile. “Oh yes, I’m completely fine, actually.”

“What the--?!” was all he could bring out, before his life suddenly ended and restarted again. A whole world’s worth of new knowledge streamed into his mind, as well as a single and unoverridable goal: to serve the colt that he had just met.

“Hello, my master. What can I help you with?” The lieutenant asked, after turning around to face Frosty.

“Hello, lieutenant. I am very glad you asked. You see: I have this minor problem that I need your help with. I need the duty roster for the palace, as well as the names and ranks of all the current commanding officers in the Canterlot area. You are to get me that information while also maintaining your host’s previous social life, so you don’t raise too much suspicion.” Frosty said.

“It shall be done, my master.” The lieutenant said, bowing deep before Frosty.

“Splendid. Now, be on your way, lieutenant. Your wife is certainly already waiting for you.”

“At once, my lord.” The lieutenant confirmed and left the alley.

Frosty teleported back to the small lodge in the forest late in the evening. He fully expected to land inside and be immediately greeted by three beautiful fillies and his two changeling servants. The latter was the case, the two former were not. Frosty had to learn that the hard way, when he landed just outside of his home, where his two changeling servants were waiting for him.

“Good evening, my lord.” Pharynx greeted.

“… Phaaaryyyyynx, what are you doing outside?~” Frosty sang in a suppressed annoyed tone.

“Sir, please excuse our behaviour, but your three mortal wives were quite insistent that we should stay out and send you in as soon as you arrived.” Pharynx justified.

“Wait, the girls wanted this?”

“Quite indeed, sir.” Pharynx confirmed.

Frosty looked over to the door and then back at Pharynx, before standing back up and walking inside. As soon as the door closed behind him, he was greeted by Sweetie Belle, who was hiding around the corner and startled Frosty just a little.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FROSTY!” She shouted, while lunging at him.

“What? Birthday? But it isn’t my Birthday.” Frosty said in confusion.

“I know, it’s just… we didn’t know what is your birthday, so we just decided to celebrate it now!” Sweetie said. “Here, we even have a gift for you!”

Sweetie Belle levitated a large, green glowing rock over to Frosty, that immediately rang a thousand alarm bells in his head. He did a magical scan of the rock and almost got a panic attack, when he found the rock to be highly radioactive. Immediately, he flung the rock outside, where he buried it two hundred meters underground and sealed the hole with as many barriers as he could put up.

“Aww, you didn’t like our present…” Sweetie Belle sobbed.

“Uhh, n-no, Sweetie, it’s just… that rock was veeery dangerous, so…” Frosty rubbed the back of his neck, not knowing what to say next.

“Oh. Okay. We have another present for you anyways, so it isn’t really that bad.” Sweetie said, before turning around and walking towards their bedroom.

“Another present? Uhh, I kinda have a bad feeling about this…”

Warning: Porn Section
blah blah, 18+… wait, I brought that joke already, dammit.

Frosty entered the room and immediately, the sight he got made his eyes bulge.

Inside, Applebloom was laying in a stack of hay with her mane open and her ribbon messily tied around her body, so it barely covered her privates.

“H-Hey, Frosty. Ah tried ta… ya know, be yer present for t’day, but ah got stuck…” Applebloom said sheepishly, while trying to untie herself.

“My present? Oh my, I really am a lucky colt if I’m gifted such a wonderful filly, but how did you get this idea?” Frosty asked.

“Well… Scootaloo told us what you did to her and… we kinda wanted to try it too…” Sweetie Belle answered sheepishly.

“Oh really? But you didn’t have to go to such lengths to do that. Just ask me next time.”Frosty said casually, as he approached the still tied-up Applebloom and lowered his head towards her nethers.

“F-Frosty? What’re y—AH!” She moaned, when Frosty’s tongue touched her clit through the ribbon.

“Are you okay, Applebloom?” Sweetie Belle asked in concern, but Applebloom only looked back at her with a look of pure bliss.

“Sweetie, ya gotta try this – Hahng! – this’s better than anything ah’ve done b’fore!” Applebloom moaned.

“Heh, wait until you get to feel this thing.” Scootaloo said, rubbing Frosty’s dick, which stood proudly between his legs by now.

“Sweetie, come over here.” Frosty ordered, gesturing to the spot beside Applebloom. “Lay on your back.” He then ordered and Sweetie obeyed, laying on her back beside Applebloom, with her own underage cunt exposed to Frosty.

Frosty brought up a hoof and started rubbing her clit with his it. Immediately upon the first touch, she started moaning just like Applebloom was, earning Scootaloo’s envy.

“Aww, me too!” She whined.

“No, Scoots, you already had your fun. Now it’s their turn.” Frosty said.

“Aww, not fair!” Scoots whined again. She watched how Applebloom and Sweetie were bombarded with wave after wave of pleasure and felt her own arousal rise more and more as she looked, to the point where she couldn’t hold it anymore and started rubbing herself.

“Aaah, Frosty, that’s so good~” Applebloom moaned louder and louder, until… Frosty suddenly stopped.

“Wha~? Why’re you stopping?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Because it’s time for the main course.” He said, moving up and presenting his starkly contrasted black horsecock to the two fillies.

“W-Wow… is that a penis?” Sweetie asked.

“Indeed it is, dear Sweetie Belle and if you paid attention in biology class, you should know exactly where this goes.” Frosty said, while prodding Applebloom’s cunt.

“Oh my gosh, what’s that? It feels… way too big fer goin’ in ther—AAAH!”

Without waiting for Applebloom to finish, Frosty dove in and almost immediately hilted in her small underage pussy.

“F-Frosty, wait, that... that hurts!” Applebloom panted.

“The pain will stop soon, Applebloom, just give it a moment.” Frosty soothed.

All four of them waited for a few moments, until Applebloom stopped panting and said: “Okay, ah think ah’m okay now.”

“Alright, then the fun can begin.” Frosty said, before slowly pulling back.

“AAH~” Applebloom screamed, when Frosty’s massive dick retreated from her confines.

“Applebloom, are you okay?” Sweetie Belle asked again.

“Yes~ ya gotta try this, Sweetie, it’s—HNG!”

Frosty started slowly pumping away into her, but with the massive size of his dick, it felt to Applebloom, as if he was already jackhammering her with full force and when he actually started increasing his pace, Applebloom was immediately reduced to a pleasure-drunken, moaning mess.

“Aww, me too!” Sweetie whined, to which Frosty looked over and gave a mock-apologetic smile.

“Sorry Sweetie, here you go!” Frosty said, pulling out of Applebloom and sticking it into Sweetie.

Sweetie Belle didn’t have the difficulties her friend had, which was most likely because Applebloom was far more muscular than the shy filly. Nevertheless one could clearly see that Frosty was far too big for her, judging by the massive bulge in her belly.

Frosty started pumping just the same way he did with Applebloom, starting slowly and then going a bit faster, until Applebloom started moaning, feeling neglected. Upon hearing this, he grabbed and lifted Sweetie Belle up to lay belly-to-belly on Applebloom, who could now feel Frosty’s dick pumping her friend through the bulge he left in her.

Frosty alternated between both fillies, his motions growing in speed more and more and eliciting louder and louder moans and screams from both fillies, until finally, all three felt an immense pressure build up.

“A-Applebloom, here comes my gift for you!” He said, before shooting two fat loads directly into the yellow filly’s womb. He then pulled out and plunged into Sweetie Belle, giving her four more shots.

Both fillies let out a cry of pleasure, as they felt the heat of Frosty’s sperm wash inside of them. They convulsed around the dick that had planted its seed inside of them, trying to milk more out of it.

Scootaloo felt her own pressure rising while watching this and, just as Frosty pulled out of Sweetie, did she cum, staining the ground beneath her in her filly juices.

All four of them collapsed into a huddle, panting from the immense pleasure they’d just experienced. They all shared kisses, after which they closed their eyes and almost immediately fell asleep.

Porn Section End.
Though, it’s the end of the Chapter anyways, so… eh.

Author's Note

And with that, the rape/consent rate is up to 2/2 :raritywink:

Setting the Stage

It was a very calm day in Ponyville. After Shining Armor and his entourage had left, there was nothing that would disturb the peace in this little town.

Twilight’s library was a big exception to this.

Inside, a certain purple mare was currently trying (and failing) to free herself from Rainbow and Applejack’s combined strength, as well as Rarity’s inhibitor spell and all that while Pinkie’s Cannon was aimed at her head.

Pinkie of course didn’t have any lethal ammunition loaded, however she had something that might’ve been even worse: The stickiest gum she could find. The kind that you would never get out again, once it got into your coat or, Celestia help, your mane!

Needless to say, Twilight was done fighting rather quickly and instead tried to reason her way out of this.

“Girls!” she pleaded. “Please, you have to believe me! Frosty is the real villain here!”

“Oh, we know that.” Rarity said. “Our master is quite amazing, isn’t he?”

“Yer sayin’ it, Rares!” Applejack said from behind her.

“W-wait, ‘Master’? What do—oh no, please don’t tell me--“ Twilight stammered, before Pinkie suddenly appeared right in front of her.

“Hihihihi, oh yes, Twilight, we’ve finally joined Frosty’s ranks!” Pinkie laughs and her eyes glow purple.

“No…” Twilight mumbled.

“Yeah, Twi. An’ guess what, our master told us tah… convice ya t’join as well…” Applejack said from behind her with a slurry voice.

Suddenly, Twilight’s hind leg was grabbed and pulled upwards… and then she felt something enter her.

“Open wide, Twi. ah’m gonna give ya th’ same treatment as Tiara got!~” Applejack sang behind her.

“No…!” Twilight whined.

“And while you’re at it, you can prepare me as well.” Rainbow said, before moving up to her face and repeatedly pushing her erect cock into Twilight’s cheek.

“N-No!” Twilight whined, though she also blushed quite a lot at the same time.

*crunch*

Twilight’s head whipped around to the other side of the Library, where Spike had just bit a big chunk out of her favourite book.

“Hey Twi, these really are tasty! I should’ve tried them sooner!” Spike said.

“NOOOOO!!!!” Twilight cried.

“Nooo!” Twilight shot upright in her bed, sweating and panting heavily.

“Finally!” Spike exclaimed from beside her, Starswirl’s original in his left claw and his right stretched forward to poke her. “I had to threaten you with destroying your favourite book to make you wake up!”

“Wake me… up?” Twilight asked groggily. “so… I’ve been asleep?... yeah, that—that means that it was all a dream right? So Shining doesn’t believe that Frosty is innocent!”

“Uhhh, no, that… totally happened.” Spike said, making Twilight promptly faint again.

Canterlot was a busy City. Hundreds of stores lined the streets, each trying to outcompete their rivals. The buildings were packed tightly to allow for maximum living space on minimal area, which in turn meant that the apartment prices were very high. In fact the only city in the entire diarchy that had higher prices was Manehattan.

The streets were filled to the brim with ponies, most of them trying to get through the busy streets as quickly as possible, while others were simply perusing through the many shops and stores.

It was the latter kind that a certain blue Showmare was interested in. After she had saved up enough for a new wagon, she had left to attend to her old business. Working for Twilight had been a very nice change of pace, sure, but even a stable pay, a roof over her head and a few friends to meet with hadn’t changed the one thing that defined Trixie the most:

She was a wandering showmare.

Being in one place for longer than a few days was nice, sure, but it also left this nagging feeling in the back of her head that the audience here was exhausted and that she needed to move. Thus, she left shortly after the whole debacle during the competition and had since been busy traveling from town to town and delivering the best show she could.

She was greatly aided in this by the larger wagon she had afforded after working a little longer than originally needed. If she was buying a new wagon anyways, she could also upgrade, while she was at it.

With her new and bigger wagon and a heavy sack of bits from her previous shows, Trixie went to set up a stage in Canterlot’s central plaza and held her standard entrance show – the same she held in Ponyville with only slight altercations due to the new wagon - as a test-run.

To say that her first show here was a success would be an understatement. On the first day she had already made enough bits to offset her expenses! However, her fortune seemingly wasn’t meant to last, as just when she was about to pack up for the day, two stallions appeared behind her.

“Hey, wander whorse.” One of the stallions called out to her.

Trixie whipped around, glaring at the stallion who just spoke. “What did you just call me?! I’m a wandering magician, not some low-life escort, you imbecile!” She shouted.

“That doesn’t matter.” The other stallion said. “Your ‘taxes’ are due. Pay up and we’ll leave you in peace.”

“What? Taxes? What are you talking about? Trixie already paid her stage rent for today!” Trixie seethed.

“Oh, we aren’t talking about stage rent, little missy. You have trespassed into our family’s territory. Pay the toll and you’re free to go.” The stallion said.

“Pah! Trixie doesn’t give money to low-life thugs like you. Now choo off, before I launch you into orbit!” Trixie threatened.

“Tsk tsk, wrong answer, little missy.” The stallion said, before nodding to his partner, who then promptly whirled around and knocked Trixie out.

Trixie awoke in a room, tied to a chair and with only a single light hanging overhead.

“Huh… wuh?” she mumbled, while still very numb from the kick.

“Ah, you are finally awake.” Another male voice said from beyond the lamp’s reach.

Trixie woke up fully and looked around frantically. She tried to free herself from her binds, but found that the ties were bound very tightly and that an inhibitor ring had been placed around her horn.

“Oh, don’t bother. My… employees are very adept at making sure, my guests don’t flee.” The voice chuckled.

“What?! Hey! Let me go! I warn you, I have VERY powerful friends!” Trixie threatened.

“And where are these friends?” The voice asked, chuckling darkly. “There are not here… Speaking of which, do you know, why you are here?”

Trixie wanted to make an unwise remark again, but was luckily (for her) cut off by the voice continuing.

“You are here, because you have done something very bad. Yes…” he said in a mockingly sad tone. “You have refused to pay your taxes… and as such, you will have to face the consequences.”

At that moment, Trixie could hear a door opening somewhere outside of her field of vision and a familiar, young voice spoke up.

“Mister Count, I heard you’ve foalnapped somepony. Is that correct?” The young voice asked, while Trixie could hear hoofsteps coming from that same direction and slowly move towards the older voice.

“Hmm? Why yes, Sir Blood. Is… Is something not to your satisfaction, sir?” the older male voice asked, with a slight undertone of fear.

“Oh don’t worry, I just wanted to see…” The younger voice suddenly cut off and Trixie could hear his pace quicken and his steps come closer, when suddenly, a small form, clad in fedora and tuxedo, stepped into the light beside her.

“Trixie?” Frosty asked with a lot of astonishment.

“Frosty?!” Trixie exclaimed with even more astonishment. “What are you doing here?! W-Why are you even in Canterlot?!”

Frosty chuckled. “Oh, that’s a long story, really. However, you being here is actually quite a good thing.”

“A good thing?! Frosty, what in Celestia’s name is going on?!” Trixie shouted.

“A lot. And many of these things aren’t good. However, with your help, we might be able to solve at least a few of them.” Frosty mused.

“Wh-what? I-I mean Trixie will help wherever she can, but… what?”

Frosty looked over to where the other voice earlier came from and nodded once in that direction. He then turned back to Trixie and smirked at her.

“Trixie… have you ever considered working with the mob?”

Author's Note

A very short chapter, indeed. Nothing more to say here.:rainbowwild:

Puppeteer Ending

Frosty chuckled and turned away, taking a few steps towards the throne. “Alas, killing you would be rather unwise of me, as I still need you. You see: these ponies still hold you very dearly and it would be quite difficult to get them back under control if you were dead.” He explained. “So instead, I would like to keep you as the public face…”

“I will not become your puppet!” Celestia shouted. “I will destroy you as soon as I get the chance!”

“Tsk tsk tsk, Celestia, it seems you didn’t get the memo.” He mocked, turning back around and coming back towards her. “If you kill me, then everypony in Canterlot will die. If you defy me, then everypony in Canterlot will die, including you and your sister.” He threatened, taking a look at the still-unconscious Luna. “But if you do as I say, then Everypony will get to continue their lives as normal.”

Celestia didn’t say anything anymore and only let out a defiant growl.

When the Elements reached Canterlot, they found that indeed a large crowd had gathered. However, they didn’t seem to be rioting, but rather listening to something. It wasn’t long until they heard what they were listening to, as princess Celestia’s voice echoed over the plaza.

“… and therefore I have to thank every single one of you that you have helped free me from the daemons that possessed me.”

The Elements gasped as they heard this and rushed into the crowd.

“And as a sign of my utmost gratitude and as a precaution that something like this will never happen again, I have decided that I shall hereby formally appoint Sir Frozen Blood the position as Royal Advisor.”

The crowd cheered and Rainbow, Applejack and Pinkie joined in. “See, Twilight? Frosty wasn’t an evil character at all. The princess herself has said so.” Rarity said to Twilight, who was looking at the scene with disbelief.

“But… Celestia wasn’t corrupted… was she?”

Author's Note

The shortest Ending of the three... would also make for a more or less decent basis for a sequel, but I like the Chaos ending more.