The Curse of the Frozen North
[Excerpt from Equestrian Mythology: Creatures and Curses 35-36]
Little is known of pre-existing curses in Equestria. There are, of course, various curses that a unicorn may cast related to dark magic, such as bad luck, rapid aging, and killing curses, as well as vanishing curses, for instance, the one cast on the Crystal Empire by the mischievous King Sombra 1000 years ago causing it to vanish entirely. However, curses that have dwelled on this planet since its creation are not often discovered, and as far back as historical records go, scholars have determined that most of Equestria’s landmarks are clean of pre-existing curses (chapters 6 and 8 look into this further).
However, discoveries in the recent millennium have proven that, despite being hard to find, our planet is not entirely free of these curses, one such discovery being the topic of this chapter. Within the Frozen North, there is rumored to be a curse separate from the one King Sombra placed on the Crystal Empire, and while it had remained an old ponies’ tale meant to scare children around a campfire for the majority of pony history, recent evidence has suggested that these theories may in fact be true.
What many don’t know, as it is often not discussed in schools and books, is that the Frozen North extends past the borders of Equestria, and within that zone is a large, unpopulated mountain range. This mountain range has been referred to by scholars as the Icy Plains, though in old ponies’ tales, it is referred to as the Suicide Mountains, since ponies have often travelled there to die. Two reports of missing ponies back up this theory, where a letter was left for their families saying that they no longer wanted to live and would be going to the Icy Plains to end their own lives, after which they were never found. Furthermore, explorers have neglected to investigate the mountains as many of those who have gone to do so before have never been heard of again.
Though, during an exploration mission in 2014, a journal was recovered, written by one of the previous explorers that had gone missing. Within contained detailed information of the nature of the mountains’ curse. A dissection of the journal showed that this curse is directly tied to death and spirits, and the following paragraphs will go into further detail on this.
***
The rising sun on the horizon marked my second day in these mountains.
As the yellow shade of dawn in the sky was slowly claimed by the bright cyan of morning, the snow below me became a blinding beacon of light. The exposure of my eyes to this shift in brightness quickly prompted me to squint as I waited for my eyes to adjust. Soon enough, they had done so enough that I could see the trail of hoofsteps I had made in the snow leading up to my temporary campsite. They had almost filled themselves in overnight, so I couldn't spot any that I'd left beyond a few hundred meters, but I knew that I had made a good bit of distance from where I started.
I wasn't eager to sit here for long. Only long enough for me to eat and wake up completely in preparation for the long trek I had ahead of me. I didn't expect today to be much different than yesterday. My hind legs were still sore from one of the hills I had to climb, and I wasn't at all excited to have to embark on a similar hike again. But I had come here for a reason, and it was necessary that I carried on.
I took another bite out of the sandwich I had packed for myself. They were starting to toughen from the cold even after the heat-up spell I had casted on it. Though, I wouldn't need to waste more magic on it as I'd almost finished it anyway. After all, I needed my magic for a more important reason, so being precautious didn't hurt.
An icy breeze brushed through my fur, my body trembling in response. It was painfully cold, but I knew it was going to get colder the further up north I went. I wasn't used to temperatures like this, as at home we often didn't see weathers where anything more than a scarf was necessary. Unfortunately, I just needed to get used to it, especially because I wasn't likely to be heading back within the next couple of days. I knew body warmth spells that would help in case of emergency.
I ate the last bite of the nearly frozen sandwich and got up to begin packing. The sooner I got moving, the better. Having done this for two days, I had already developed a pattern. I grabbed the saddlebag next to the tent I had pitched yesterday night and, summoning energy to my horn, I focused my magic on the tent before me. The contours of the tent glowed in a light-blue aura, before shrinking to a size where I could pick it up and easily fit it in the saddlebag.
Roping it over my back, I stared ahead at the distant hills of snow I had yet to travel. I took a deep breath, and then began walking. The ache in my legs fired up as though held up to a hot iron, and I grunted. But I forced myself to ignore the pain and kept moving forward. It was important that I kept moving. Every break was merely time wasted, and right now, I couldn’t afford to waste time. Time wasted would defeat the purpose of the reason I was here. A reason important enough to me that I was willing to put my life in danger to fulfill it.
The pony I came here to find.
Amber Starshine. My sister.
***
“Hey, Vi. I made dinner for us, did you want to… what are you doing?”
I looked behind me toward the voice I heard, seeing my friend Swift standing in the doorway of the bedroom he lent me.
My eyes went back to the saddlebag I was currently filling with extra clothes I had miniaturized with my magic. “Packing.”
“Packing?” he repeated puzzledly. “Are you staying with someone else? ‘Cause I said you could live here for the next few weeks until you sorted things out.”
“I’m not going to stay somewhere else,” I replied, making space in my bag to add some more items. “I’m getting ready to go find my sister.”
I heard Swift sigh behind me. “...listen, Vi, I know she was important to you, but she’s been gone for weeks now, and the guards haven’t found her yet. I think it’s a lost cause.”
I shook my head. “No it’s not. I found out where she is, I have a chance of finding her this time.”
“Wait, hold on, what do you mean you found her?” I paused and sighed, knowing that I was inevitably going to have to explain myself to him.
I stood from the floor and turned to him. “I found a tracking spell that can locate ponies on a map. Apparently she’s somewhere in the frozen north, and according to the spell, she’s moved since yesterday. She could still be alive, Swift. I can’t let that chance go to waste.”
His face fell slightly, brows creased slightly in confusion. “How can you be sure about that? If a tracking spell was available to the guards and they haven't found her yet, how can you be certain it works?"
"I can’t. But it’s my best bet at finding her right now." As true as Swift's words were, any chance at finding my sister alive and well was one that I wasn't willing to waste. Not for a second.
Swift looked at me doubtfully. "Well… don't you think they would have found her if she was in the crystal empire?"
"Not the crystal empire. The spell showed that she was in the mountains outside of Equestria."
Swift's mouth froze on the word he was about to say, realizing what I was talking about. "You mean the Icy Plains outside the borders?"
I nodded. "And I'm travelling there tomorrow first thing in the morning."
"Hey, woah woah woah…" he said suddenly, holding out a hoof. "Do you realize how dangerous that is?"
"Which is why I'm going there alone," I said. I was quickly regretting telling him where I was going. Swift cared deeply about all his friends, I knew. It was the reason I considered him my closest friend. However, at this moment his concern for me was going to be a hindrance, because he was going to try and stop me from going, and I wasn't going to let him.
“Vi, ponies have gone missing there, and all you have to go on is a hunch. You’re going to risk your life based on that?”
“It’s more than a hunch!” I argued. “It’s my only chance to find her; the only proof I have that she could still be alive and out there, and I have to find her.”
“And you really want to risk getting yourself killed when you can’t be certain that she’s really there? It's foolish!”
I looked him in the eyes. “Maybe it is. But what would you have done differently in my place?” Swift held back whatever he was about to say next. “My parents were murdered, and Amber is the only family I have left.” I heard my voice quiver, my eyes beginning to burn, but I held back the tears. “I have to find her, Swift. I can’t lose her too. I know you don’t agree with me, but at least try to understand.”
He looked down, contemplating what I’d said in deep thought. I didn’t want to yell at him, but I needed him to understand that I was going no matter what he said. From what I could see, I managed to get my point across.
After nearly a minute of dead silence, he spoke. “You’re sure about this?”
“Yes,” I replied plainly.
“And I can’t stop you from going on your own?”
“No.”
He exhaled. “Just… stay safe, okay? You’re important to me, and I don’t want something bad to happen to you.”
I nodded. “Thank you. And I’ll try.”
***
I thought back to that conversation that I’d had with Swift. He didn’t agree with me travelling here, but his understanding of my choice was all I needed from him. After all, the words I had said to him had not changed between then and now.
I couldn’t lose Amber, and even if it meant risking my life to find her, I was willing. We swore to each other after our parents died that we would stick by each other no matter what. And even though she had broken her end of the promise, I was prepared to go through hell to find her and make sure she never broke that promise ever again.
With determination in my steps, I continued onward. She was out there, and I would find her. No matter what it took.
The Curse of the Frozen North
[Excerpt from Equestrian Mythology: Creatures and Curses 37-38]
Bringing back an earlier mentioned point, this curse is related to death in a somewhat religious fashion. The following information is paraphrased from the explorer, Windrider’s recovered journal detailing the discoveries he made during his expedition.
On the second day of his journey, he encountered the Windigos, a type of spirit that feeds off of negative emotions and are summoned by tension and anger to freeze the land around those who were the source of it. A rumor in tales of the Icy Plains was that those mountains were the home of the Windigos, which happens to be the theory that Windrider proposed in his journal, including the addition of another related discovery.
According to him, Windigos are the result of ponies who died in the mountains, and were brought back by the curse as spirited creatures, and since they never left the mountains, he considered that they were trapped there by the curse until negative emotions elsewhere allowed them to spread.
This reveals a major part of the curse’s nature that separates it from all the curses we know of to date, that being its direct tampering with the afterlife and the soul after the death of its physical body. It also appears to behave much like the rumored curse that revives dead ponies as mindless creatures.
While the relation between the curse and the Windigos makes up half of his discovery, Windrider proceeds to talk of something else that has never been recorded in Equestrian history, but that will be discussed at a later point in this chapter.
***
It's been two hours since I began walking today's distance.
I had already determined that today's journey had been much harder than yesterday. Soon after I packed, it had begun to snow. It had started off as a small deal but now thick flakes of crystal were raining down from the sky, and the trail I was marking in the snow with each step was quickly being filled in.
Each step through the thick white floor below me took a good deal of effort as I dragged my legs through it, unable to lift them completely out of the snow like I could yesterday. This increased exertion caused the pain in my legs to flare beyond a simple soreness, and reduced my breath to repeated exasperated gasps I likely wouldn't have been able to speak a full sentence through.
I could only imagine the difficulty of walking up a hill, considering I was this tired walking down a flat terrain. It had nearly brought me to my haunches yesterday, but with the snow, thick as it was today, I wasn't sure that I would be able to manage. I was forced to face the idea that I may have needed more breaks than I wanted to allow myself. For now, though, I decided that I would deal with the issue when it became one. I could still manage now, and that's what mattered.
Yet despite the exhausting amount of work I was putting my body through, I was freezing. With every deep breath of frigid air, my lungs froze more and more, and clouds of mist flowed from my mouth like a muffler. I practically couldn't feel my hooves or face anymore. I was sure that hypothermia wouldn't be a risk for now, but if it continued to get colder, I would be in trouble.
It must have been at least ten degrees colder than it was yesterday. That's how it felt, at least, considering I was shivering. If it had been this cold when I slept last night, I might not have lasted. I would have passed in my sleep, painlessly, having never found my sister. I couldn't let that happen. I had to keep moving.
I could see a slight downward slope nearing in front of me. It would certainly alleviate some of the strain in my legs, so I was thankful for that. The fact that I hadn't encountered an upward hill yet was a miracle. I just had to pray that luck was on my side today, and hope that I wouldn't have to climb anything terribly steep.
At this point, I lit up my horn, remembering how to cast the voice amplifier spell--a basic spell I had first learned in my first year of magic school. A tiny, glowing piece of light with the appearance of a night star floated gradually from the top of my horn down to my throat and sunk inward. Then, I lifted my head, and called out.
"AMBER!"
The nearly deafening call pierced through the air as the far-off mountains repeated it back to me several more times, each repetition weaker than the last until they faded completely. It was loud enough to be heard from miles away, and if Amber was nearby, she would have heard it, and hopefully followed it to me.
A minute later, I called out her name again, and as I expected, the only response I got was my own voice being recited back to me. I shouted her name a few more times every minute or so until the spell wore off. Eventually, and disappointingly, I determined that I wasn't going to get anything other than an echo, and that I would just have to try again in the next few kilometers.
I trudged forward through the heavy snow, quickly rising up my legs like a slowly progressing flood. A strong gust of wind hit my side, almost toppling me over, and causing me to tremble violently in an attempt to fight off the cold. The increasingly heavy snow and growing winds was pointing toward the arrival of a storm, which worried me. I most certainly did not want to be caught in a snowstorm right now.
I stared at the sky, watching as clouds gathered into an expansive tight pack, blocking the cyan blue sky with a depressing grey filter. The only advantage was that the sunlight was no longer turning the sea of snow below me into a visual representation of the sun's surface. Though, eye damage wasn't necessarily as concerning to me as how much it was going to snow today, and the concentration of clouds in the sky wasn't giving me a good sign.
In fact, looking at my situation as a whole, nothing was giving me a good sign. A little over half my legs were submerged in the layer of packed, crystalline snow below me, and if the weather got worse, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to continue on. Not to mention, the cold gave me another reason to keep moving. My body heat and shuddering were currently the only things protecting me from the cold, and if I stopped moving, who knew how long I'd last after that. I had my magic, but even then, I wasn't sure how effective it would be in this case.
Each meeting of my hooves against the ground created an audible crunch before I lifted them as much as I could and dragged them forward. I glanced back to view my progress. Holes in the snow had slowly morphed into straight lines that led up to where I was. Though, I could just barely see the change in the trail I made, as the grain of snowfall covered up a majority of my view.
When I'd made it a good distance further, I cast the amplifier spell on my voice and called out my sister's name once more. Like before, the voice I was hoping to hear of my sister calling my name back had never come, and instead, I heard my own voice calling out her name over and over again from the mountains, almost as if the mountains themselves were mocking me. I repeated this process a few more times before the spell once again wore off, and my options were once again limited to walking another few kilometers and trying again.
The entirety of my legs were nearly submerged in snow after I had called Amber’s name two more times. The graceful fall of snow from the sky had quickly turned into an unforgiving blizzard. Each individual flake was no longer visible and instead were bright lasers that streaked through the air fast enough that the impact of the flakes against my body stung. The fog, once far away, had closed in around me, and now I could only see a few meters ahead before a void of grey swallowed the world.
The wind had increased to a nearly unbearable speed. Each sudden blast of wind pushed me sideways, nearly knocking me over, and whipped the fierce attack of snowfall in all directions. My fur was matted with snow, transforming my coat from magenta to white, and after squinting to shield my eyes, my eyelashes had quickly collected snow, blocking most of my vision.
I was full on shivering now. My body was shuddering non-stop, and each breath in was shaky, and the scarf and coat I had on were close to useless now. I lit up my horn and cast the body heat spell. The near ice cold I felt earlier had noticeably diminished to a more tolerable temperature and I was no longer in a constant state of shivering. Though, it had not done much, and I would have to keep casting the spell every five minutes or so for it to be effective, but it would have to do, since I had no other option.
What confused me was the sudden transition from regular snow to blizzard in a matter of seconds. How could the weather change that quickly? I knew that pegasi were capable of something like that, but with no pegasi out here to influence the behavior of the clouds, I couldn’t imagine what had brought upon this sudden onslaught of snow.
While I couldn’t see what was ahead of me, I felt that I had reached flat ground, and as I proceeded forward, the ground slowly curved into an uphill, and I knew that the most difficult part of my journey had arrived.
The first few steps had already proven to be incredibly taxing. I was going half the speed that I was originally as each step was a struggle in itself. My chest tightened, begging for more oxygen than I was providing it. I can’t recall a time when I had breathed this hard. As an athletic pony, I had pushed myself before, many times. But this was on another level, and as the hill continued to steepen, doubts were slowly beginning to fill my mind.
My legs were on fire as I pushed myself with all my strength up the hill, urging me to collapse into the snow and just lie there. But I wasn’t going to do that. I kept going, enduring the massive strain. I began to tremble violently again, and the relentless cold came back. I quickly fired my horn to restore the spell providing protection against it, even if it was very little.
It was getting worse out here. Something was wrong. The snow was getting heavier, the wind howling loudly as though it were alive. Thoughts surfaced in my mind of whether I was going to be able to keep this up. With the cold, snowstorm and uphill against me, the chances that I would be able to continue were not high at all. If it got any worse, my chances at survival would be at risk as well.
I cast the amplifier spell once more. Through my stressed inhaling, it was nearly impossible to speak. At some point, however, I managed to catch enough of my breath to call out my sister's name…
"AMBER!"
That time, I received a new response, but it was not my sister's. On top of the repetition of my voice, a haunting howl rang through the air, prompting me to pause for the first time since I began walking.
The howl, sounding eerily similar to a low-pitched wail, seemed to come from everywhere at once. I couldn't pinpoint the exact direction or location of its origin through the dense fog and flurry of snowflakes all around me. After a few seconds, the sound faded away, the ambience returning to the soft screech of wind and snow tapping the ground.
My head twisted in all directions as I tried to figure out where that sound had come from, or better yet what had made it. Was I alone up here? If the sound had come from some sort of wild creature, I couldn't possibly imagine the type, as I had never heard anything like it before. It was almost… otherworldly. Unnatural even.
Focused on the noise I'd heard, I didn't notice until I began shivering that the body heat spell had worn off again. I fired up my horn and cast it again, but the light from my horn fizzled out like a spark, dissolving to stardust and being torn away by the wind into the grey fog.
"What…?" I muttered to myself, attempting once again to cast it, and ending up with the same result. The howl filled the air again, but this time it was nearer, and it didn't seem like it was on the ground, rather, it sounded like it had come from above.
Nervous, I was about to start moving again when suddenly, the fog retreated back slightly, and the snowfall cleared up, no longer stinging upon hitting my skin. I looked around apprehensively, on edge from the strange events occurring around me. Then I heard it again. The howl. And this time, it came from directly above.
My eyes shot upward, and I froze upon seeing the origin of the sound.
In the sky, gliding in slow circles, was a large, light-blue creature, hosting the shape of an equine animal with a pointed snout, long, thin legs and a long mane that ran down it's back, flowing with rhythmical elegance. The creature was ghost-like, moving through the air in a smooth pattern, and I could just barely see the clouds through its form.
I recognized the creature. It was the windigo I had heard of in old pony tales said to feast on the negative emotions of ponies. I remembered what they looked like from the yearly hearth's warming eve play, though I had always thought that these creatures only had their place in mythology. Awestruck at the sight above, I continued to stare, frozen in place as the Windigo tilted its head in my direction, its bright, shimmering blue eyes focused on me.
The blue creature suddenly broke from its pattern and soared downward in my direction. Alarmed, I stepped back, unsure if it wanted to attack me. Running was certainly not going to get me far, and I didn't know enough magic to fight back, so if it did want to attack me, I was done for. The windigo continued to descend until it was at my level, and I could instantly feel the unnatural coldness radiating from it. I watched as it almost appeared to scrutinize my stationary, fearful form, emanating a quiet, menacing growl.
Like it had done above, it flew a gradual circle around me, scanning me like it was checking whether I was good to eat. Then, the windigo seemed to soften, its growl replaced by silence as it backed off a little. Then, it lowered to the ground, its transparent hooves touching the snow-packed ground.
I assumed by that action that it did not want to hurt me. It stood in front of me, passively, not showing any signs of malcontent as its eyes, soulless and empty, stared at me in what looked to be fascination. From what I knew, Windigos attacked when tension existed amongst ponies. It likely wasn't harming me because it had no reason to.
The need to find my sister came back to me then, and I was about to walk past the Windigo and continue on when an idea came to mind. It was a far-fetched idea, but if this creature had been here for a long time, it wouldn't hurt to try.
"I'm looking for my sister. Her name is Amber. Do you know where she is?" I asked it. The Windigo's posture did not change for a moment, as though it had not registered what I said, or even that I'd said anything.
Then, it turned away, and took off into the air again with another reverberant howl. The windigo rose up and began to fly into the wall of fog. Quickly, I ran in pursuit of it. I couldn’t tell if it was trying to lead me somewhere, but I didn’t want to lose sight of it in case it was.
Going fast was close to impossible. I had gained back some energy from standing still, but I knew right away that I wasn’t going to catch up with the creature at my current speed.
“Wait!” I called after it. It didn’t respond to me, fading into the grey background. I pushed my legs to go faster, trudging through the snow as quickly as I could manage, but it was fruitless. The windigo disappeared into the fog, and all at once, a massive impact of wind and snow pellets propelled my unsuspecting body sideways and into the snow.
Groaning, I placed my forehooves on the ground and pushed myself out of the deep chasm I had made in the snow, suddenly finding myself quaking heavily again. I looked around, and saw that the snowfall had picked up again and the fog obscured nearly everything around me. The weather had returned to its state before the Windigo had shown up.
Standing myself on my shaky legs, I continued walking in the direction the windigo had gone. Catching up with it was out of the question now, but I still wanted to see where it had gone. Casting the body heat spell successfully this time, I fought the resistance of the hill of snow, determined to discover an inkling of where my sister may have been.
Seconds of seeing the same surroundings turned into minutes of it, chasing after the fog as it moved away from me at the speed I was going. The blizzard was fierce, determined to knock me back down, but I kept moving forward. I needed to find out where the windigo went.
Then, something began to emerge from the fog. From where I was, I could only make out the shadowed outline of a nearly colossal sized mountain. I feared that I had merely been led to an obstacle, but as I got closer, I realized that it was not a mountain.
It was a cave entrance.
I stopped in my tracks, standing before the large open entrance, icicles hanging off the top of the roughly arched ceiling, that led into an interior that was too dark to see properly. Could this have been where the windigo had led me? Was my sister in here? Whatever the case, it was an opportunity to escape the blizzard, and an equal opportunity to see if Amber really was here.
I approached the entrance of the cave, and stepped inside. Almost immediately, the impact of snow had ceased, as well as the force of wind. The relief of finally being out of the storm rushed through me, and I began examining the large indoor space I had walked into.
I couldn’t see far inside due to the darkness of the cave, and the light from outside did little to brighten it. I knew a light spell, and prepared my horn to cast it and find out where I was.
An unearthly screech came from outside the entrance.
My own gasp resonated through the spacious area as I spun around, gaze directed outside. Thoughts raced through my head. Was that the windigo I followed? No, the sound it made was much different from what I had just heard. This one was high-pitched and uncannily shrill, belonging to no animal I’d ever heard before. It didn’t sound close, but the fact that I could hear it meant I had something to worry about.
Staring into the thick fog outside, nothing visibly stood out that could have caused such a scream, until my eyes landed on something: a barely visible shape moving slowly through the blizzard.
I squinted my eyes to get a better look. I couldn’t make out its details well at all, but I could tell by its much smaller size that it bore no resemblance to the windigo other than its somewhat pony-like appearance.
The shape stopped moving, and stood still for the next few moments. Suddenly, another screech erupted from it. I backed away from the entrance, fear beginning to seep into my nerves. It was definitely a creature, different than the first one I had encountered. Whether or not it was dangerous was still a mystery to me, but the noise it made told me it was much more aggressive than the windigo.
The silhouette of the unfamiliar creature outside was now growing in size, and with each passing second the shape became bigger and bigger until it had emerged enough out of the fog enough that I could make out more of its details.
However, one of the details of the creature stood out over the others, making my blood go cold.
It was running. Running in my direction. It was going to attack me.
My mind went frantic as panic overloaded my senses. My first consideration was running away, but given how easily it was running through the snow, I made two deductions: it was fast, and it was strong. Plus, my magic wasn't strong enough to cast defense spells, so I ruled that out.
With the creature getting ever closer, my eyes darted in their sockets, searching for any solutions I could find, before pausing on a spot on the ceiling next to the entrance. The rock surface appeared cracked and loose, as though the slightest influence would cause it to break apart and fall. An idea popped in my head.
As a distorted scream echoed outside once more, I cast a telekinesis spell, and focused it on the cracked ceiling ahead. An aura of magic outlined the individual cracks, and I pulled downward. As soon as I did that, dust and a few small rocks were expelled from between the cracks. I pulled down harder, straining my magic as I did. The cracks slowly widened, and spread across the ceiling.
I looked outside. The creature was nearly at the entrance. I had but a few more seconds before the distance between me and it would be closed.
Adrenaline pumping through my veins, I summoned more magic to my horn and then tugged with every bit of my magical reserves, screaming as I put all I had into getting it loose.
The surface of rock gave in to the stress, and broke apart. All at once, an avalanche of debris and large rocks tumbled down from the ceiling. I leapt out of the way as huge boulders broke off and struck the ground with a loud crash. Right before the creature could enter the cave, the falling rocks filled the entrance as it collapsed, until eventually, the way outside was entirely sealed, and the interior of the cave was engulfed in complete darkness.
