Like Father Like Son

Dammit, this was supposed to be a quiet post, an easy job! Steel Saber thought to herself in panic as she ran. What the hell is that thing?

She had been running through deep snow and dense woods for quite a long time. The deep, heavy snow of the frozen north was not very kind to her legs, forcing her to pick her legs up even higher than anypony normally would, and oftentimes forcing her to stumble as she hurried away. Fearful of the creature that pursued her, she kept going, ignoring her legs' pleas for mercy and forcing them to continue carrying her farther, they had to.

She cast a glance over her shoulder, the sight behind her pushing her to go faster. A big cloud of black fog, massive in it's size, was hot on her tail. It seemed completely unhindered by the snow, and while she didn't know for sure, she was convinced that it didn't leave tracks either. It's fiery red draconian eyes were fixed on her, it's gaze a mix of hunger, and hate. She'd never seen this, but she, like everypony across Equestria, knew about this, and when it had happened before.

King Sombra. He's supposed to be dead! She shouted in her thoughts. The Crystal Heart blew him apart! How could anything survive that!

As she thought this the creature roared behind her, making her shoot her gaze back at it. It was then that she lost her footing and fell forward. She hit the snow with a grunt, and looked back again with panic, the creature now rising up to tower forebodingly over her prone form.

She scrambled along the ground, feet kicking frantically against the snow and her arms pushing her body up, trying to break out into a sprint again. Her feet found traction just in time too, just as she took to running again the fog that she could only know to be King Sombra lunged for her, striking the space where she'd been only seconds ago. Instead of leaving a dent in the snow or send some up into the air, instead the cloud itself split and swirled about like falling water striking the rounded bottom of a wineglass, and reforming into the dark, formless mass of blackness that had chased her.

I'm screwed. She thought with panic. I'm going to die here. Or worse!

Pull yourself together! You are a soldier of the Equestrian Northern Watch! You fear nothing!

But then... Why am I so scared?

All these thoughts ran through her head as she kept up her desperate sprint to escape this monster. Her ears laid back, and her grey and white mane flowing freely behind her as she ran. As these thoughts flooded her mind, she had to fight back the tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks.

They're dead. All of them are dead. And soon so will I.

she had no idea where she was. She had no idea which direction she was heading. All she could think about was escape. So focused on running was she that she didn't even think to look ahead of her. Again the snow tripped her up, again she fell forward. This time her legs refused to help her, they were screaming in agony, begging for the pain to stop. They refused any of her mental orders to keep going. So she pulled herself on with her hands.

She reached forward, grabbing at the snowy ground and pulled herself forward, she got maybe five more feet before she discovered that she was on a cliff's edge, and a look behind her informed her that the creature, no, King Sombra, was right behind her. She had been cornered.

Snow began to fall from the sky as the big black cloud of fog looked at her, it's eyes still hungry and hateful, but now with something else too. It was still, looking at her with almost a pleased expression. It almost seemed to be taunting her. She didn't know how long it stared at her, all she knew is that when it finally began to move closer the snow had started to fall more heavily.

WEAK

The instant it moved closer to her, she flinched back, trying to crawl further away, completely forgetting about the cliff's edge until it was too late. She gasped as she started to go down, the cliff's edge rising up in front of her blocking her view of the Tyrant King. She went down.

Down.

Down.

Down...

Earlier that day

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!"

The room was completely filled with the sound of the well-wishes and the applause of all those present. Kazoos and tiny, handheld confetti cannons sounded in celebration. It wasn't much but it was what they had.

"Awwwe. Thanks guys." Said a smiling mare in her uniform.

Steel Saber said, "Come on Flechette, blow out the candles and make a wish."

The birthday girl, a mare by the name of Flechette, was a fairly typical mare. She was a pegasus with a grey coat and a blue mane held back in a short ponytail. She wore the white gambeson uniform of the Equestrian Northern Watch, With a single black stripe going around her upper arm to show her rank, a lowly Private. Her bronze colored eyes gleamed as she smiled at her unit.

On the table where they ate sat a singular, small cake. It was pretty ugly, the icing was poorly applied but it didn't look like it would taste bad in any capacity. On top there were a few candles, not enough to match her age, as she was twenty four, and there appeared to only be ten on the cake. But it didn't matter.

Flechette approached the table and did just as her friend said, she closed her eyes a moment to think, then blew out the candles on top of the cake.

"What'd you wish for?" A stallion, who's name was Iron Shield, asked.

"Can't tell you. Or it won't come true." Flechette said with a giggle.

Saber matched her giggle, "Go ahead and sit down, I'll cut the cake for you."

Flechette and the two others with them did just that. And another mare, by the name of Javelin, spoke to Flechette. "So how are you enjoying this post so far Flechette?"

She shrugged. "It's a little boring sometimes, and it's rediculously cold outside. But it's peaceful enough, and we have a warm place to stay. We don't need to pay for food and the company is wonderful."

Javelin chuckled. "Well it's only peaceful so long as noone starts a snowball war."

"Isn't it a snowball fight?" Flechette asked curiously.

"Not up here it's not." Shield said with an evil cackle, "We take snowball fights to the next level. Hence we call them snowball wars. They're more destructive than real combat is~"

Saber giggled and said, "Stop. you're going to scare her."

Saber passed out small plates of cake slices, then took a seat next to Flechette. "Don't worry, they're just exaggerating. Sure we're a little more hardcore in our snowball fights than a lot of ponies usually are, but it's not all that bad. We make pretty good snow forts too. Actually, why don't you come with me to see the one we built a few weeks ago. You arrived last week, so I don't think you've seen it yet."

"Um, sure. I'd love to." Flechette said with a shrug.

"You two have fun," Javelin said, "Me and Shield have to take watch once we've finished our slices of cake. And we need to make sure that Yew and Cross get their slices. Sorry they couldn't be here Flechette."

"No, it's fine. Someone needs to be on watch at all times, I know, so I can't really fault them for that." Flechette says with a shrug.

Saber finished up her slice of cake and picked up her plate to be brought to the washing bucket, Flechette followed her example soon after. Saber and Flechette pulled on their boots and went out into the cold snow. Luckily for them the gambeson uniforms, since gambeson was often wool packed tightly down between two or more layers of cloth, were quite warm, meaning they were having zero trouble with the cold air of the Frozen North.

Saber lead Flechette away from the outpost, a small log cabin with a single tower at on end of it. It was simple, but well built and warm. There were no windows in the walls of the building, instead it was lit by candles and lanterns. In the tower one could see a single pair of ponies, both stallions, standing watch. One of them saw the two mares walking from the cabin, and waved to Saber as they went, who waved back.

Flechette saw Saber wave, and turned to look up at the tower. Smiling she also waved to the stallion in the tower. She sighed contently. "You know. This place is so peaceful. I know it's a military outpost, yes I know we're supposed to be soldiers. But this feels like a home, not a post."

"I know what you mean." Saber said, a soft smile gracing her lips. "It is remarkably peaceful up here. It's friggin cold! But... yeah, it's a really nice place to be. I can tell you this much, I often think I'd prefer to be here than back home in Phillydelphia. It's quieter. Ah, here we are."

Flechette looked ahead of them and stopped dead in her tracks. What was in front of her was beyond impressive. It was bigger than the log cabin in which they stayed. A large square wall of snow, that was a little taller than she was, with a single ramp up one side, all made of snow. Each corner had a tower on it, or really they were bastions since they were the same height as the actual wall.

"So the way we do it is we have three ponies guard the castle, and three ponies attack it. Everything goes in these fights. So the defenders oftentimes soak the ramp in water when the fight starts so that it ices over and it's harder to get up." Saber explained as she lead the way up onto the wall. "If you're an attacker and you're hit, you need to return to the cabin then you're back in. If you're a defender you have to return to your flag and wait a full minute before you can rejoin your comrades."

Even more astonishing, on the inside of the first snow wall was a second snow wall, Twice as high as the last one with one ramp leading up into the... well it could only really be called a Keep. She saw that this also had bastions on its for corners.

"Geez you weren't kidding when you said you take it to the next level." Flechette said with astonishment. "Do you ice this ramp too when you're pushed back to the keep?"

Saber grinned evilly, "Don't you know it."

Flechette began to laugh almost nervously. "Goodness gracious you guys are hardcore. I'm kinda scared to be honest."

Saber turned her way with an evil grin on her face. "You should be~"

Screams echoed across the sky, startling both mares. They exchanged worried looks before running back to the cabin. What they saw horrified them. The cabin had collapsed in on itself, the roof and walls were now a pile of rubble, and the tower had tipped over. As they got closer they could see Javelin running away from the fallen tower, and emerging from the wreckage came a large black cloud, with burning red eyes.

Flechette immediately took off for Javelin, Saber was too slow to stop her. "Flechette no!!!"

She was ignored as Flechette continued to run for Javelin. Reaching across to her left hip she drew her sword and continued to run. Javelin stumbled forward and fell to the snowy ground, just as the black cloud bore down on her Flechette stood above her compatriot, sword ready to cut down this monster as it moved to attack her friend and comrade. It was Flechette's first and last act of courage. The shadowy fog bore down on the both of them, Flechette stood her ground, and though noone could see her face, tears were streaming down her face. She was afraid, terrified of this monster as it closed in on all sides, consuming the two mares in it's fathomless black.

When it moved on, nothing was left. No bodies, no armor, no clothes, no weapons, nothing. The only sign that there'd been anyone there at all were the hoofprints that the two mares had left behind. Saber saw this, and looking up at the monster she met it's gaze, it's hungry, hateful gaze. She fled.

"No bodies were found princess. No weapons, no armor, no sign of a struggle aside from the collapsed building. No blood, and the heavy snowfall concealed all hoofprints that may have been left behind. All scouts sent to look for survivors either came back to report nothing or never came back at all. And none of the garrison have returned to any of our bases anywhere."

The Guard Captain delivering this report sighed. "It pains me to say Princess, we should assume that the missing ponies are dead."

Celestia looked solemnly down at the table in front of her, upon which sat a map of Equestria. After a moment of silence she spoke. "Have the northern outposts double their garrison, and mobilize the Northern Army. Something out there is hurting my ponies and I want to know what."

The Guard Captain bowed, "Yes Princess."

Following this he turned and left the room. Leaving Princess Celestia alone with her sister.

Luna spoke up. "Sister, We will send out our spies to scout the region. If this monster is truly out there then it would behoove us to take every action available to us in order to bring it down."

Celestia nodded. "Do it, Sister."

Luna nodded, then in a flash she disappeared.

Celestia leaned over the map, and read over the written report again, and again, and again.

Am I dead?

She groaned, trying to move, but only making her legs twitch a little. Her eyes slowly, very slowly, blinked open, her vision still blurry.

Did that thing kill me?

She felt, warm?

No, death wouldn't hurt this much. Would it?

Saber eyes came into focus, and she finally saw clearly. She was beside a fire, a small one, but a fire nonetheless. It was certainly warm enough to explain why she wasn't cold.

"Where am I?"