VII: A New Encounter

Frequent time skips continue from last chapter

After taking time to build a shelter out of stone, I make some adjustments so that it is somewhat insulated from the outside temperature with only two inconspicuous windows to let in light. Once I add some final touches to it, I discard the rest of the stone I gathered and put my helmet on, then repressurize the interior of the suit before heading into the dangerously cold frozen north

Spending the first week exploring the northernmost edge of the mountain range to the west, I don't run into any of the Windigoes surprisingly. When I head further away from the mountain range, I make sure to check my holographic map to maintain my bearing as I discover that the plants here must have undergone some type of evolution to survive the cold. Adding each discovery to my AI's knowledge bank, I eventually come across a small field of dihydrogen crystals.

Taking my time to mine them all, I look around for Ferrite to craft launch fuel cells for my starship. Once making as many as possible, I then continue to wander the frozen lands when I spot a series of large drifts. Scanning the area informs me that the cluster of snowdrifts is actually a frozen, abandoned village. I am about to make my way past the village when I receive an alert warning me of an incoming storm, forcing me to hurry towards the village and take shelter there in one of the more intact structures.

Reaching the village as temperatures start to plummet to -100, I start to clear snow away with my hands and arms while looking for a door. It winds up taking me a couple minutes to find the door when I notice the temperature has dropped to just over 300 below, finally locating a double door that is frozen shut. Determined to get in as my hazard protection starts to drop faster, I strike the handle with the butt of my MTR until it turns. Bashing my shoulder against the door, I see the ice start to crack and give way.

My hazard protection is nearly gone when the door finally moves inward as I get my first glimpse of a windigo, a bluish-green spectral creature with ghostly front legs with hooves at the end and a long body that ends in a tail that moves in the wind. I watch the creature for a moment when it circles around out of view when a second quickly appears on the other side, having much the same appearance as the first one with the same glowing eyes.

The creature vanishes from view as a third appears and gallops across the wind currents in a circle with the others, noticing that the blowing snow starts to form a spinning funnel following the direction the windigoes are heading. Not having time to think of anything else, I bash into the door one last time and push my way past the door and into the dwelling. Closing the door behind me to shut the howling noise out, I find myself surrounded by the dark and turn on my lights.

With my MTR in my hands, I quickly look around for any windigoes in here with me, but see none. Letting out a sigh of relief when I see the temperature rise to a normal 50 below, I take a closer look around the room and notice a block of ice with a unicorn trapped inside it with a book in front of them.

Sighing sadly at knowing they are dead, I scan them and see that they have been trapped here for 1200 years. Continuing to analyze them with my analysis visor, I notice some strange details about their biology and ask, "Evette, would you mind running your own scan of this pony and explain the strange details to me?"

Turning the lens to the trapped pony, she runs a deep scan of the ice and the unicorn inside. Once the results come back, she says, "The frozen pony's race is a unicorn, their sex is female, her age is 25, the book trapped in the ice and the saddlebags on her flanks suggest that she was preparing to evacuate and attempted to take one more book with her. From the look on her face, it appears that she was frozen rapidly and felt no pain at all when the ice fully engulfed her. Surprisingly, the state of her body and internal organs show no signs of decay whatsoever, seeming as if she could still live if the ice was thawed. Analyzing her body further, it is clear to me that her body still functions, though at a rate much slower than what is capable through cryostasis due to the magical nature of the ice itself. If left in this state for another 3000 years, she will suffer a very slow death. Getting back to the more important data, from what my scans were able to learn about her biology, her DNA has been altered by absorbing minute traces of the ice. Which could indicate that she might handle a higher degree of cold than other ponies, or she may be able to manipulate ice with her magic. Further studies of her DNA would be required to discern the changes her body experienced."

Wondering what action I should take, I then ask Evette, "Do you think I should get her out of that ice and rescue her, or end her life and set her free?"

Evette considers the options and then takes into consideration what his lover would say and answers, "The decision is up to you, Traveller, though you might want to consider what your lover would want you to do."

Taking Equise into thought, I smile and say, "Thank you, Evette, I would be lost without your guidance. I shall wait the storm out in here while looking for anything that I can salvage from this building."

So, I begin looking around the dwelling for anything that might be of use to me now or later and add it to my inventory, spending a few days inside eating whatever remains edible after being in this place for so long. When the storm refuses to pass, I then sigh and ask, "Am I going to have to deal with those pesky windigoes to be able to make it back to the rendezvous point?"

Sending out a pulse to examine the environment, the AI then responds, saying, "From the magical nature of the storm, it is apparent to me that you will have to defeat the windigoes to be free from their magical grip."

Recharging my protection, I then attempt to pull the door open several times. Finding it refusing to budge an inch and shake my head, saying, "Well, it looks like I'm going to have to blast my way out of here." Making my way over to the frozen mare, I place my hands upon the block, saying, "Pardon me miss, but I need to get you to safety." then push her into an empty corner far from the door.

Standing between the door and the mare, I pull my MTR off my back and then aim it towards the doors. Switching it over to the Plasma Launcher, I fire off a round and watch it sail towards the doors in slow motion.

As the windigoes whirl around the structure, trying to freeze the lifeform within, watching the doors closely when they are violently blown away in pieces with a loud noise and a bright blue flash of light.

Shrieking in brief fright, one of them soars higher when they watch the strange bipedal creature calmly exit the dwelling and look up at them wearing strange clothing and a strange helmet on their head. Wondering what it is, the windigo soars back down to get a closer look at it, seeing it raise a strange type of melee weapon up at it. Looking down upon the creature brazen enough to face their powerful magic, the windigo howls out in anger, saying over the whirling winds, "What a foolish creature you are, there are no weapons or magic with the power to destroy us! We are Windigoes, where there is hatred, anger, and distrust, we drive out the inhabitants to expand our frozen domain. None can withstand the harsh cold that we find soothing, not even you can survive it. I shall dance upon the block of ice which you shall be trapped in."

Smirking, I follow the creature's movements and then call out, "Well, today is your unlucky day, because I can endure your magical cold, and I can destroy you." Scanning the creature, I discover something surprising about its biological makeup and see that it is primarily made up of a combination of gases, mostly being Nitrogen with a bit of Sulfurine mixed in. What intrigues me is the fact that they have a core made of a crystalized form of condensed Dioxite or Dihydrogen, saying, "Your bodies contain materials that I badly need, there is no hope of me letting you get away."

Not liking what the creature said, one of the windigoes stays in the sky as the other two charge the creature head on. Nervousness gives way to fear as they watch the creature knock one of them out of the sky with a bright blue explosion of light, watching as the windigo doesn't move at all as his glowing eyes slowly drift closed. Shortly after, a beam of light surrounds their body and pulls it into a hole on the creature's back when she sees the other try to flee into the sky.

Not getting very far, they too are knocked out of the sky, letting out a pained shriek when they plummet to the ground and are hit with a red beam that causes them to slowly disintigrate. Looking up at the last remaining windigo still on the winds with fear in their eyes, they cry out in a ghostly voice, "PLEASE HELP ME, I DON'T WANT TO DIE!"

Torn between wanting to flee or save her friend, frozen teardrops fall from her eyes as she hesitates for a moment before watching his eyes start to slowly close. Rushing towards him, she reaches out and wraps her hooves around him before hurrying away, saying, "Please hold on, I'll get you back to the others to heal you."

Feeling himself fading too quickly, he tries to separate himself from her grip and weakly says, "No...it's...too late...for me. Let me go...save yourself. The others must be warned...of this...new threat."

As icy tears slowly fall from her face, she reluctantly lets go and says, "O...Okay." then darts off towards the horizon to get away from the dangerous creature.

When I finish harvesting the second one's materials, I see the last one trying to get away and call out, "Not on my watch!" and then switch to my Paralysis Mortar and launch a round toward the fleeing windigo while hoping I aimed it right.

The windigo continues hurrying away, not looking back and smiles when she feels like she is going to escape the creature. The feeling of success disintigrates when something strikes her tail, hearing an explosion of static right behind her a moment later. Lighting arcs throughout her spectral body as she lets out an agonized, ear-piercing shriek of pain and falls to the ground. Unable to register the impact due to the pain from the lightning running wild through her body consuming her mind, she continues to wail out in agony.

Knowing that the effects won't last long, I hurry over to the downed windigo and see the shocks fade away, though the screams continue. Not giving them a chance to flee again, I put a boot upon their body lightly to keep them there, and ask in Equestrian, "Any last words, vile creature?"

Once the pain slowly subsides, the windigo trembles at feeling herself pinned to the ground and turns her head around to look up at the creature, seeing that their face is completely covered by the helmet with only a band of reflective material she takes to be some type of glass. Looking down the weapon's front, she sees a glowing red light appear from inside a small hole between two bigger holes. Fear slowly gives way to terror as her normal blue color changes to a sickly yellow, trying to curl in on herself as she continues to sob, saying, "P-Please d-don't kill me, I'll do whatever you want! I'm only 17...I'm too young to die!"

Evette quickly scans the creature when he hesitates to pull the trigger, saying through the camera speaker, "My scans tell me that what she says is honest, she is indeed too young to perish. Her willingness to do what you ask her to is not a fabrication, she means it with her heart and soul. Perhaps she could lead us to more plentiful sources of the materials required for further repairs."

Holding the weapon at her face while holding her down, I think the offer and advice over for several seconds before saying, "If I agree, we will need a way to ensure that she does not try to make fools of us."

Turning her lens to the trembling windigo as she has her front hooves wrapped over her head, she says, "I will hand you a blueprint for a collar to put around her neck, it can be crafted easily out of silver."

Nodding my head, I look at the windigo and say, "Look up at my face and into my reflective visor lens, windigo." When she looks up at my face, I say, "I will accept your offer and spare your life, but you will have to wear a silver collar and lead me to whatever sources of materials I need until I choose to release you. Can you agree to those terms?"

Still trembling, flickers of hope rise within her as she thinks on his words, nodding her head slowly with a sad sigh, saying, "I...I do accept those terms."

As I look at her, I then say, "I will lower my weapon now, but you better not attempt to escape or I will either paralyze you again...or outright kill you for the substances you are made of."

Nodding once more, she lets her body go limp as she looks up at him, watching him lower his weapon and let it hang at his side. Raising his appendages into the air, he then turns them towards each other and makes a strange magical light come from each of them. Able to sense magic intrinsically, she knows that this isn't anything like it and watches as a segmented band starts to form in the air from tiny particles, finding herself interested in how that is happening.

A long ten minutes pass when I finish the collar and shift my foot so that I hold her down with my knee, then clip the collar around her neck and turn it on by locking it, saying, "It is now active and at my command, will send painful, paralyzing currents throughout your body if you should try to betray your word to us." Standing up, I let her off the ground and say, "Before we begin looking for what I need, I must first rescue whatever ponies are still alive in the village."

Rising into the air, the female windigo nods her head, saying, "Very well, master." Following him back to the village, she watches as he enters each one and searches for trapped residents.

Searching through all the houses indicated on the scans, I am pleased to only find a few ponies that failed to escape in time. Marking their locations on the map, I make my way to the first house and start to build a small sled to make moving the survivors easier. When the sled is finished, I bring the mare out of the house and push her block up the ramp and check the temperature to find that it is still only -50, saying, "Alright, let's get this rescue mission underway, I want to make it there before my lover arrives and explain the situation to her."

Equise arrives a day early and sets the crates of supplies in the corner, then makes herself comfortable on the makeshift couch he created. Without meaning to, she falls asleep and then wakes up to a blast of cold air, shouting, "Close that door, were you born in a barn?"

Closing the door behind me as my eyes adjust to the darkness, I smile and say, "Hello dear, I hope that you weren't waiting too long."

Lifting her head from the couch, she shakes the drowsiness away as her eyes adjust and sees her lover standing beside a large block of ice beside him and asks, "Why did you feel the need to bring a big chunk of ice in here, it's cold enough without any wood for a fire?"

Smiling, I then say, "Well, I made a surprising discovery this month that will make you quite happy."

A grin splits her face in half as she gasps audibly in joy and asks, "YOU FOUND EVERYTHING YOU NEED AND CAN LEAVE THE FROZEN NORTH?!"

I shake my head and chuckle, saying, "Not yet, unfortunately. However, I did stumble upon a village north of here, and what did I find there? Windigoes and frozen ponies that are still alive! After having to fight the windigoes to get away, I defeated two of them and gathered materials from they were made of before knocking a third out of the sky when she tried to flee. To get to the point, I made her an offer to ensure their survival, and she accepted. Before you lose your cool, I made a collar and locked it around her neck. To ensure she won't betray me, I can paralyze her body with painful, electric shocks whenever I feel that she is trying to fool me.

Once she hears the rest of what he says about the windigo, she exhales frustratedly, saying, "I am surprised that you managed to defeat the windigoes at all, let alone taking one captive. Where is the windigo at now?"

Placing my arm upon the block, I say, "I asked her to keep out of view between the pony popsicle and me, I hope you aren't going to attack her or anything."

Letting out a huff, she then says, 'Of course not! I just want to make it clear that if anything happens to you, I will stop at nothing to get rid of every last windigo in this world." Hearing a nervous gulp from behind the block, her mind calms down and then focuses on what else he said as her eyes go wide, asking, "Wait...YOU FOUND SURVIVORS, HOW ARE THEY STILL ALIVE?!"

Explaining to her what my AI discovered, I then say, "I will leave it up to you to think of how best to get her out of that ice, but that book might be important to her, so try your best to rescue it. Once she is out, you will have to help her through what happened."

Equise then nods her head and says, "I will think of a way to get them all out unharmed, how about you go bring the others here while I think of how I'm going to make this happen?"

Nodding my head, I then say, "I am glad to see you, dear, I will be back in a while."

Leaving, I then spend the next week making trips to the village and from it, bringing the ponies I found there back to the shelter. Bringing the four mares back to the shelter I built, I ask my lover, "So is there anything you want me to do dear?"

The alicorn nods her head and says, "Yes, I need you to turn them so that they are facing me and have about a one foot gap between each other. After that, I will need you to stand against the far back wall with the windigo, for I shall need her powers for the second part of the plan."

Arranging them the way she asked me to, I then head to the back with the windigo while looking forward to seeing what she has planned. As I watch her use her magic to cast one spell four times before forming a large magic spell with a protective barrier around it when she turns to the windigo and asks, "You do know the spell most opposite of Muspelheim, don't you? If I am not mistaken, it is called Niflheim."

Nodding her head with wide eyes, the windigo says, "All windigoes know that spell, what do you need it for, Guardian?"

Needing to explain it to her, Equise says, "As soon as I cast Muspelheim first, I need you to wait until the flames stop and then cast your spell immediately. Be sure to make it as cold as you possibly can so that it produces Nitrogen, or my second casting of Muspelheim will fail."

I watch as the windigo tries to puzzle it out and say, "She wants you to create Nitrogen in a liquid form because it will explode if exposed to high enough heat."

Understanding fills her eyes as the windigo then says, "Which will result in the complete destruction of the ice around the ponies!" She then asks nervously, "But will the trapped ponies be alright?"

Nodding her head, she smiles and says, "Worry not, for I put protective barriers along their bodies to protect them from the blast, be sure to confine your spell inside the barrier protecting us from the spells' effects. Let us begin..." then prepares to cast her spell.

The plan goes off without any issues as I look at the four thawed ponies on the ground when I hear Equise tell me to take what supplies I need from the boxes against the wall and take my leave while she has a long talk with them. Nodding my head, I then recall what I scavenged from the houses and set it all on the floor in the corner, saying, "Before you send them on their way, tell them that their rescuer scavenged what he thought was useful in his mind, and that the rest was either too damaged by exposure, age, or was just not worth saving. If there is anything that they cannot do without, have them make a list and I will retrieve them, then drop them off here."

Happy to hear of his thoughtfulness, she walks up to him and kisses him, saying, "I will make sure to do that, now gather what you need and hurry off. I would like to start having a foal by the end of this decade. Be sure to remember that I will describe their rescuer in your second form and name, and don't forget that I love you."

Nodding, I hurry to the boxes and grab what I need from them for a month-long expedition before replacing the lids and heading out, saying, "Thank you, dear, I will remember that. I love you, and will see you again next month."

Heading out with the windigo leading the way, I describe a couple of materials to her that I need. Recognizing them both, she guides me to where they can be found. With her able to create Nitrogen in a crystal form, I decide to collect that last due to how volatile it is when heat is involved.

A month passes as I return to the shelter at night to find my lover there with the survivors still recovering from their ordeal, making sure not to wake them as I gather the supplies and leave once again. Finding a paper on the door, I grab it and look it over to see that it is a small list of various items including things like family heirlooms and pictures. Making my way to the village to find the items, I bring them back and set them in a pile where I set the items I salvaged.

3 Months pass as we make regular visits to the shelter every four weeks when she surprises me one day by leading me to seams of dioxite the first month, fields of di-hydrogen crystals the next, and even a forest of trees that grow frost crystals the third month.

As I am still harvesting frost crystals from trees, my wife's words echo through my head about being the world's only guardian. Those words dance through my head and tickle the notions of a thought forming as I take a better look at the trees I'm harvesting frost crystals from, which causes me to have a stray thought, thinking, 'Wow, trees really are wonderful...they can absorb bad elements and produce oxygen for us to breathe, as well as grow food. But what if they could do other things like spread diseases, defend themselves, help out in a fight, use magic, or could even think for themselves...'

Just then, those thoughts trigger an idea that brings a curious look to my face as I walk around the tree, studying the structure of the tree along with its composition and other details. Turning my eyes to the windigo, I then ask her, "Hey Icy Step, do you understand anything about the way trees function on a magical level?"

Without realizing it as she cocks her head curiously while thinking it over, I sparked a discussion that would go back and forth for two months until I share the idea that I had the other day with her. As we head towards another source of material I need to stock up on, I then ask her, "Hey Icy, I might have asked you something similar before, but, theoretically speaking... If you were wanting to come up with a way to make an intelligent, magical tree that can help keep things in balance, how would you go about achieving it?"

Thinking it over seriously for a moment, she then says, "Well...I am definitely no scientist, but I have a decent understanding of the nature and properties of magic. After all, I am a part of that nature myself. So, I would have to think that to even begin to start that monumental headache, you would need the purest parts from many things that form the balance in the world. If you're seriously considering pursuing this idea you concocted, you do know that you will likely be old and grey by the time you succeed, right?"

Nodding my head with a grin, I then say, "I do, so let's go gather a massive amount of Cobalt, which happens to be one of the last materials I might possibly find here."

When we reach a place where a large amount of cobalt can be found, I raise my forearm with the device that has many different functions in it and summon my starship to come to me and land nearby, saying, "Alright time for me to get busy gathering, crafting, and refining."

I wind up spending a month and a half on refining the rest of the cobalt I need and making what else I need to make repairs to the ship itself as well as the systems when I finally finish an important repair task and ask Icy Step to start producing Nitrogen crystals so that I can collect them and recharge the engine's cooling system.

Finishing the repairs that I can, I think back to the adventures Icy and I had here, asking, "Hey Icy, I was always curious about your diet. What do Windigoes normally eat?"

She cocks her head and floats beside him with an incredulous expression on her face, asking, "You seriously didn't find out yet?" When she sees him shrug and answer no, she blinks twice and chuckles, saying, "Well, I find that surprising. Our diet consists of various things, such as the frost crystals you collected, a plant with blue petals called poison joke is a delicacy. However, what we are really drawn to are these rare crystals that turned black and have a purple glow within their center after absorbing a large amount of fear and hatred."

I am pulled away by a vision of me researching a way to grow various mineral producing plants by splicing and adjusting the DNA strands with advanced science. When I find myself back in the Frozen North with Icy Step looking at me curiously, I smile at her and pick her up in my arms and spin around, saying happily, "You just helped me remember something from my past, thank you so much Icy!"

Blushing at the sudden, excessive gratitude, she giggles and says, "You're welcome, but can you put me down? Embracing someone with affection is risky business for an uncoupled Windigo such as myself."

Not really understanding her meaning, I nod and set her down, saying, "Sorry, I've just been going through life without any knowledge or memories of who I am since I crashed on this world. Evette knows, but she insists on letting me discover myself on my own." An idea comes to me as I then ask, "Hey, why don't you guide me to one of these black crystals you love to eat so I can collect it for study?"

Nodding her head, she smiles and says, "Alright then, follow me."

Frequent time skips continue to next chapter, sorry!