The Most Horrible Hearth's Warming EVER: A Candy Mare Tale

High above, the winter winds had calmed and the last vestiges of the blizzard seemed to fade into the oncoming velvet of night. The storm had moved away just enough so that the first stars of evening could be seen peaking through the tattered ghosts of the clouds that remained in it's wake. However, not far off the sky still boiled, brewing another tempest that threatened to overshadow the one that had come before. Flashes of green and orange lightning promised thunder snow before the night was over. The frigid light of the cold moon outlined those teeming thunderheads in it's silver glow as it climbed into the sky. It was like a pearl pillowed on the black velvet of the boiling squall, it's lustrous light shaming the diamond dust of the stars and illuminating the land for miles around.

Castle Bullion stood in perfect silhouette against the backdrop of the pale moonlight, a dark stain across the satellite's glowing surface. In the highest tower in the tallest keep, what remained of a once thriving colony of bats huddled together in hibernation. Their torpor had gone on much longer than it was meant to, and the floor was littered with the bodies of bats who had dreamed of a spring that would never come. Even so, the strongest of the brood yet endured, clinging stubbornly to life. Despite the tower being far from the warm and humid roost it would have been had the castle still been kept cozy by its original occupants, one of the tiny brown bodies stirred as it was touched by the opalescent light streaming through a broken stained-glass window. It shivered, it's body temperature briefly rising as it stretched muscles stiff from clinging so long to the rafters and lethargically opened one eye to stare out at the rising moon. From the bat's vantage, it could see through the broken glass down into the abandoned township below. Despite it's weak eyesight and poor health, it could just barely make out something moving through the winter stillness.

Something drawing closer...

All around the keep, abandoned hovels that had once housed vibrant families of unicorns tottered in frozen decay. Many of the thatch roofs had long ago caved in under the weight of ice and snow. Other houses stood off-kilter, slanted sideways against the constant blast of the northern wind, unmoored from foundations long since broken. Door's hung open, held in place by the buildup of ice that froze them fast to the snow drifts they were stuck in, giving a glimpse into the crooked homes that had now long stood uninhabited. Here one could see a glimpse inside the lives of opulence the former tenants had once led, caught in frozen tableau. Plates of sweet meats and pastries dusted with ice crystals on dining room tables accompanied by cups of tea that were left frozen solid. One might see chase lounges and finely embroidered carpets, but these too were caked with permafrost. The saddest remains were perhaps the glacially preserved aquariums, the glass long since shattered by the expansion of the formerly liquid environment that they once contained. Many families had clearly left in a hurry and some would have had no choice but to leave beloved pets behind.

Princess Luna hovered over the town on midnight wings, unwilling to land in the midst of the rime encrusted ruins. There was something almost sacrosanct about the place, that would be transgressed by so much as the trod of a hoof were she to take a step upon that land. Instead Luna, herself a dark shape against the stars, flew on to the entrance of the citadel that loomed over all those broken dreams. She was but a tiny dot before the castle, but even so, she stood out remarkably as the only moving thing in this wasteland frozen in time.

The portcullis was already raised as if in anticipation of her arrival. While this welcome most likely had been laid out with her sister Celestia in mind, the Princess of the Night was not going to be so rude as to decline the open invitation now that she had come this far. The portcullis put her in mind of the fangs of some enormous beast, a dark gaping maw gaping invitingly wide for foolish prey to wander into. Sure enough, as soon as Luna passed beneath them they snapped closed with a thunderous crunch! High above the ultra sonic squeaks of the disturbed bat colony could just be heard as the few survivors took wing, searching for a quieter and safer roost somewhere far away and warm. Perhaps it had been inadvertent, but perhaps by coming here Luna had managed to save a few little lives, tiny though they were. Only now did she land, her hooves clip clopping on the frozen cobble stones as she stepped beyond the entrance to the stronghold.

Now she was truly in the belly of the beast. The Princess of the Night scoffed at her own sense of disquiet. There was nothing fanciful or supernatural about a gate closing, and this tottering old castle was far from being some ravenous creature. No, the one that likely waited inside better fit that description. It was too soon for Luna to let her nerves get the better of her, she needed to steel herself for the battle yet to come, so instead of dwelling on her unease she pressed on.

The castle courtyard was much like the ghost town that lay outside it's walls, dripping though it was with ice where it was not blanketed by snow. Enormous icicles hung from the battlements, some forming thick translucent columns several stories tall. Here and there was the evidence of the unicorn nobility's hurried flight from their once impenetrable fortress. Here was a wagon that had been laden for travel, abandoned with its wheels frozen permanently in its ruts. Over there was a wheelbarrow piled high with abandoned art, the tarp over which had long since been ripped away by the relentless winter winds. The canvases beneath now contained not the lineage these images had sought to preserve but only the vaguest hints of the shapes of ponies long dead. The figures were distorted and strange, yet their eyes still seemed to follow Luna as she crossed the courtyard. The irony that this edifice which had long protected the unicorn's from enemies from without had at last instead succumbed to a threat spawned from within by their own hatred and bigotry was not lost upon Luna.

All was deathly quiet.

The princess could hear her own heartbeat thundering in her ears.

There was a flash of distant lightning and a crash that nearly made Luna jump out of her skin!

A banshee howl of rising wind promised the lull in the storm was to shortly end.

Luna needed to be inside before that happened.

The main door of the fortress proper creaked open slowly on rusty hinges. It banged against the side of the stone wall, blown open by a feral gust of wind. A shiver ran down Luna's spine as she gazed into the perfect darkness that lay within. There would likely be little moonlight to comfort her there. Perhaps this had not been her best idea after all? While she had no doubt about her capabilities in open combat, it was unwise to face an enemy on their own terms, and the murky depths she was staring into certainly looked like the perfect battlefield for the Candy Mare to take advantage of. Walking into such an obvious trap, no matter how brave or bold, could be a recipe only for disaster. If Luna turned back now, there would be no shame in it. Some might even count it as wise.

But then Luna couldn't help but imagine the look her sister would give her upon her return.

Oh, how Celestia would laugh and tease her! Not having the guts to push forward after she had come this far would bring nothing but delight to her older sibling. Luna could hear the mock sympathy in her condescending words already. These thoughts lit a fire in the young princess's belly that dispelled her doubts and fears, and drove away the chill that was settling over her like a shroud. She would press on, if only out of pure spite.

Boldly the Princess of the Night crossed the threshold! Once again, the door slammed fast behind her, blotting out the reassuring light of the moon and stars. Swallowed by the darkness, Luna suddenly felt very tiny and alone, but it was too late to turn back now.

Inside, the castle was somehow even colder and more miserable than it had been outside. In the chill air there was a stillness that went beyond the quiet Luna had experienced outside. Now her every breath hung as a cloud of steam in the air and her breathing sounded magnified in her own ears. She took a moment to calm herself, and then slowly illuminated her horn. The light didn't seem to reach very far within this expansive edifice, but the pool of illumination around her lit up her immediate surroundings well enough for her to continue forward. Frost covered the walls and rime encrusted the floor and ceiling as far as she could see. Long icicles hung from the ceiling, as they had from the walls outside, making the castle feel more wild and cavernous than it would have when it had still been occupied by its living residents.

Encased particularly thickly in these icicles was a vast chandelier glittered darkly above, the oil that once allowed it to blaze bright had long since frozen solid in the now light-less sconces. Likewise there were candelabra, furniture, and full suits of decorative armor glazed with ice, icicles cascading down their exteriors like motionless waterfalls. The tapestries that hung on the walls were tattered and worn as the victories and myths that they once held had been obliterated by feathery fingers of hoarfrost that had marched relentlessly across their surfaces, mercilessly as any conquering foe.

"I'm here," Luna called in a whisper that sounded like thunder in her own ears, but was swiftly swallowed by the pregnant silence. Of course, there was no answer. Feeling silly, she put on her Royal Canterlot Voice and instead shouted, "THY PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT HATH ARRIVED! SHOW THYSELF BLACKGUARD, LEST THEE BE CRAVEN!"

Only the fading echos of Luna's own words came back in reply.

'Arrived-ived-ived!'

'Blackguard-ard-rd!'

'Craven-ven-en-n!'

Some of the frost on the ceiling must have shook loose by her cry, for a light snow began to fall. The sight of it snowing indoors would have normally been a magical thing, but here in the tomb-like silence and near total darkness it was strange and disturbing in a way that Luna could not quite account for. Clicking her tongue in disapproval at the lack of her enemy manifesting herself on command, Luna had no choice but to venture deeper into the castle. The gently falling snowflakes following her and a low dense fog rose to choke every pathway as she marched forward.

The Princess passed a flight of ruined stairs that spiraled up into the stronghold's main tower, so thick with verglas it appear to be made of glass, mist spilling down it's steps like a river of ghosts. Further on she passed several chambers that seemed to be set aside for receiving foreign dignitaries, the flags of the various pony tribes hanging stiff and frozen over tables and chairs that had apparently been overturned in some haste. The windows here had all been broken, and the wind whistled mournfully through the shattered panes. Past these she came to what must have once been a grand and gaudy ball room, decorated with rare gems and crystals that now blended with the columns of ice that encased them. The glow from Luna's horn reflected strangely in their frosty facets, sending weird and watery shafts of colored light dancing across the walls. The torn remains of banners and garlands of some interrupted festivities gave the scene a touch of the bizarre, a joyous occasion left to be celebrated only by the relentless elements that had overtaken these halls.

At last, she came to the long and high-ceilinged throne room. Here the ravages of the north were less apparent than in any other room, though the chill mist and falling snowflakes were if anything denser and more pervasive here. That was not all that was odd about this chamber, however, for on closer inspection there was the scent of something more than the tinny smell of snow or the must of disused chambers. As Luna flared her nostrils, she inhaled the rich iron stench of blood, foul and thick on the air. Beneath that, there was something far more putrid, as well as something that was almost tantalizingly... Sweet?

Focusing more magic into her horn, Luna increased the range of her illumination enough that she could peer high into the rafters above. An involuntary gasp escaped her throat, although she wasn't really surprised by what she saw. She had found the Candy Mare's larder, where she kept the meat from her kills. There were so many ponies, all different ages and races, in various stages of decay. Some had been stripped entirely of their flesh and hung barely more than skeletons with mere gobbets of meat still clinging to their yellowing bones. Others looked comparatively fresher, though most were mutilated in terrible, heart-wrenching ways. Many were hung by their own entrails, strung in mock imitation of the festive garlands and banners in the ball room Luna had passed through on the way here. These halls had been decked in the viscera of the Candy Mare's victims, a horrid display of her callous madness writ large.

Luna realized with disgust that the blood she had smelled was in fact steadily falling all around her in the form of feathery red snowflakes. The blood from the dead had formed into thick red icicles that dangled from their remains and the droplets from these stained the flakes that fell from the ceiling. Drifts of reddish-black snow were piled thickly beneath where the corpse-cicles clustered tightly together. The deranged idea of building a frosty scarlet snow-mare from the gory sludge flickered across Luna's mind, making her stomach lurch, although it hinted that the contents of this room were sending her mind dangerously close to the edge of the depths of insanity that the Candy Mare already blithely swam. The shores of sanity were not far behind, but Luna had wander into the shoals of derangement just by gazing on this profaned place.

Pushing her disturbed thoughts from her head with a physical shake, Luna approached the vacant thrones at the far end of the room, neck still craned back as she stared wordlessly at the slaughtered masses suspended over her head. If it were not for the cold, the stench of so many carcasses would have been truly overpowering. As it was, the freezing temperatures preserved the meat, letting the Candy Mare amass a great stock of 'food' for the never ending winter. That the creature had gathered such a bounty and yet still went about relentlessly murdering ponies without slowing down spoke at once to her immense hunger as well as her insatiable bloodlust. She was a greedy glutton in every sense of the word as even this vast collection of corpses was likely but a small portion of her over all body count. Likely there were stockpiles like this all over the frozen north. The scope of the candied abomination's slaughter was truly mind-numbing.

Luna at last let her attention drift to the ornate thrones that occupied the raised dais at the far end of the room. One of these thrones had once belonged to King Bullion himself while the other, smaller one, had been reserved for his daughter Princess Platinum. Luna could not help but think of what the pair of prim and proper unicorns might make of what their beloved throne room had been converted into. The once ornate royal seats had fared no better, each having been completely ruined and defiled by the steady deluge of viscera from above. The once proud seats of power were caked in wet crimson and black muck that stank almost worse than the bloated cadavers above. Luna had to turn her head and cover her mouth to keep from gagging, realizing only belatedly what her hooves had been trudging through and quickly placing her hoof back on the floor.

So then, where was her erstwhile 'host'?

Was the Candy Mare not here after all? It seemed like the perfect place for her to receive her 'guest'.

Was this a dead end?

Beyond the befouled royal seats, a low groan caught Luna's attention. A wall and a portion of the floor sunk, grinding away to reveal a hidden passage that beckoned the princess to continue on. The corridor was narrow and seemed to lead down into the bowels of the keep. Luna would have been more than happy to leave this abattoir behind, but that didn't stop her from pausing just before taking that first step into the world that hid below all this ruined decadence.

For all that she had seen thus far had been quite disturbing, but who knew what might await in the subterranean depths below, where her wings would be useless and her magic as much a danger to her enemy as to herself? Were Luna to accidentally bring the ruins down on her own head, burying her where no one would ever find her, that would be a truly embarrassing and ignominious end to this harrowing expedition.

A subtle breeze whistled through the suspended bodies that hung over-head, making the bloody icicles chime in a grotesquely musical fashion. It gave the impression that the dead were whispering among themselves, shaking off their rigor-mortis and preparing to descend on the unwitting princess that hesitated below.

Once again, Luna shook, banishing such thoughts from her head. What did it matter if she was to explore a little further? She had to know. It wasn't like she was running away, or anything. They were just dead bodies - ponies she hadn't been able to save. Surely they wouldn't hold a grudge against her for that?

Unconsciously holding her breath, Luna descended the stairs into yet deeper darkness. As the Alicorn vanished into the gloom, the soft whispers turned instead to dry laughter.