Ethereal Chaos

“Happy birthday, girls,” Steelmind said. “So, Frostburn, how are you enjoying your party?” Stonebolt narrowed her eyes in frustration. It was a minor annoyance of hers, and didn't come up as often as it used to, but Stonebolt and Frostburn were always getting confused for each other, even though the only physical similarity the two shared was their father's freckles.

“First off, Steelmind,” she corrected him. “it's my birthday too. We're twins, and you know this. Second, I'm Stonebolt, and she's Frostburn.” she said this while gesturing to her sister standing right next to her.

“Sorry, Stone,” he said. “I've just been kinda out of it for the past few weeks. I was working on something very special for my very special somepony.” Frostburn's eyes lit up excitedly. He noticed the bright red glittery ribbon on Frostburn’s tail. “Is that a new tail bow?” Frostburn nodded.

“Leafwind made it,” she said. “Do you like it?”

“It looks really adorable on you, Snowflake,” he said. “Now, about your present.”

   “You got me a present,” she squealed, bouncing up and down. He nodded, leading her outside as the other guests followed curiously. When they got outside, a pair of shapes stood covered over by large tarps. “You got me two presents?!”

   “Actually,” he said. “It's just the one; the other one's for your sister.” Stonebolt smirked.

“C’mon, Steel,” she said. “You didn’t have to make something for me.”

“I did,” he said. “It’s your birthday too. Speaking of which…” he lifted off the tarp of the first one to reveal a large metal statue of Steelmind and Frostburn locked in a passionate embrace. The other tarp revealed a statue of Stonebolt triumphantly rising above a dragon with a sword gripped in her teeth. The crowd looked at both in awe, especially Stonebolt's.

   “Steelmind,” Frostburn said breathlessly. “it's beautiful. You made these?” he nodded.

   “All it really took was control of metal, check, a lot of time and patience, check, and something wonderful and breathtakingly gorgeous to draw inspiration from,” he explained, leaning up close to Frostburn. “Check.” Frostburn pulled him close to her, and they kissed.

“That is really amazing, Steelmind,” Zephyroak said. “You spent a lot of time on this?” he nodded as Stonebolt glanced at her smugly. “What?”

“Well, apparently, everypony else doesn’t seem to mind my mane as much.” The Wood Trossel rolled her eyes.

“Stone, are you seriously still on about that?”

   The party continued for another few hours, Infernalo dismissing the darkening sky as something concocted by Weather Trossels. However, the peculiar shaded crimson lightning stirred up new suspicions entirely. Frostburn pulled him away from the window quickly and kissed him on the cheek.

     “That's for the gift you got me and Stone for our birthday,” she said, wearing a bright silver necklace with a small gold heart locket. “It was really sweet of you.” Infernalo smirked, he opened the locket with his magic and on the right was picture of all of them together; the left was an inscription that read: Frosty, no matter how far you go or how dark things get, your family is always there for you. Love, your big brother Infernalo.

   “Anything for my baby sister,” he said. Frostburn smiled, and dragged him along.

   “C'mon, join the party,” she insisted. Infernalo allowed Frostburn to drag him along before pulling away when Aquashine walked up to him.

   “Infernalo, why don't you and I go somewhere a little quieter,” she asked, batting her eyelashes. Frostburn shot an angry look at her brother, but he ignored her and followed Aquashine outside.

   “Stupid Aquashine,” Frostburn grumbled under her breath. “Ruining my party, stealing my brother.” Outside another bolt of red lightning came down, this one was much louder now. The guests took notice of this, Leafwind hiding behind Frostburn for protection. Infernalo and Aquashine rushed back inside and locked the door behind them. “What's happening,” Frostburn asked Infernalo. He shrugged, but then shuddered in horror. Five figures arose from a thick cloud of mist outside, all of them not-too-friendly Trossels with pitch black spikes. The one on the far left, Galtora, was a dark green Trossel with his irises each a different color and a permanent grin spread across his face. His mane and tail was several shades of very dirty browns and burgundies and blacks, styled in a state of complete disarray, with the spikes on his front right and back left chipped. A sharp forked tongue darted out of Galtora's mouth briefly before returning. The Trossel on the left, Belzaro, was a silvery mare with an eye patch covering her right eye and a long black jagged scar. There were several stitches running across her body, legs, face, and neck. Her one visible eye was completely white without any iris or even pupil and her tail was a single perpetual ball of white-hot fire. The Trossel in the middle was completely black from his hooves to his head, except for a taupe tail with thick bright blue streaks through it. His mane wasn't visible, presumably because of the dark violet cloak covering his face. A glimmer of bright yellow-orange showed through his hood, suggesting where his eyes were. A large red F was emblazoned on the front of his robe, which seemed to glow an unsettling aura. The Trossel on the right, Thorok, was the largest of the five. He was a dusty shade of dark green with piercing electric blue eyes. His tail was nonexistent but his bright orange mane came almost down to his front hooves. His face seemed to be almost carved into a permanent sneer of hatred and rage. The final Trossel on the far right, Xeviole, was a small, almost pathetic, blue-grey mare with her black mane covering most of her face and her tail dragging across the ground. One of her eyes was nothing more than solid black with a small blue dot in the center while the other eye was dark blue and puffy as though she'd been crying for a long while. The five Trossels all kept at the exact same pace, marching rhythmically with the others' hoof steps before finally stopping. Infernalo, against every moral fiber of his body, teleported outside and looked at them. The air outside had become thick and stale as the sky began to darken further.

     “You're the Cursed Trossels, aren't you,” Infernalo asked, hiding the unnerving tone in his voice. They nodded in unison. “Galtora, the Trossel of Sanity, Belzaro, the Trossel of Sin, Frarae, the Trossel of Chaos, Thorok, the Trossel of Vengeance, and Xeviole, the Trossel of Guilt?” Each one nodded once upon mention of their respective title, except Xeviole whose face simply hid behind her long black mane. “Who sent you?” Frarae raised a hoof and gestured to the statue of Frostburn. Frostburn shrank back and hid somewhere in shame while everypony was fixed on what the Cursed Trossels would do. Belzaro lifted her hoof and stomped on the ground three times before scraping it once. They all nodded and finally vanished in a cloud of black smoke. The sky slowly began clearing up as Leafwind looked up to see Frostburn wasn't where she thought she was all along.

   “Where's Frostburn,” she asked. The guests all began murmuring worriedly, believing the Cursed Trossels might've inducted the pony who summoned them. Stonebolt, though, slinked off and followed the faint sobbing sounds she'd heard to a small room. Frostburn was hiding under a bed, untying and tossing aside her new tail bow. She heard Stonebolt enter and crawled deeper under. The Thunder Trossel took notice and saw Frostburn with her face buried in her hooves.

   “Frosty,” Stonebolt asked, clearly more concerned about her sister than anything else. “Is that you?” Frostburn sniffed and crawled deeper in, refusing to respond. “Are you okay?” Frostburn whimpers slowly degraded to sharp sorrowful whines. “Frosty, it's okay. Come on out. You've got nothing to worry about.” Frostburn shook her head furiously and Stonebolt looked down at her.

   “E-everypony's going to h-h-hate me,” Frostburn sobbed, finally breaking down completely. Stonebolt dragged the distraught and hysterical pony out from under the bed, and tried to console her. The Fire Trossel’s tail was completely limp and the bright red and pale blue meshed together into an incomprehensible swirl. Stonebolt brought Frostburn’s teary yellow eyes to meet hers, Frostburn sniffling as Stonebolt tied her pink tail bow back on with her magic while holding her sister.

   “Frosty,” Stonebolt said. “What's wrong?” Frostburn was sobbing too much to answer and simply threw herself on the matters in distress.

   “I didn't know,” she said through pained tears. “I-I swear I didn't...” she broke down again and resumed her sobbing even more. Without warning, a large black void opened under their feet and they appeared outside Seldreinia's border, Frostburn still crying to inconsolable levels. She looked up at Infernalo's stern and judgmental glare and sniffed. “Where are we going?” the Heaven Trossel’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Big…brother?”

   “Shut up,” he ordered. There had always been times when Frostburn had annoyed Infernalo or made him angry with her, but there had always been some minute token deep down when she knew they were still family and he still loved her; this time there was nothing. This was the first time in Frostburn's life when she truly, genuinely believed that he hated her. “We're going somewhere far enough away that nopony, not even the Cursed Trossels, will be able to reach us.” Frostburn noticed his white-hot glare turn to her upon mentioning Them. They slowly trotted along down the road, other Trossels also evacuating in opposite directions. She looked down at her locket. This is the worst birthday ever, Frostburn thought as she and Stonebolt looked down at their respective presents from Steelmind. Stonebolt began levitating, but Infernalo brought her back down with a large dark swipe. It didn’t hurt very much, because she was an Earth Trossel, but it was still pretty hard. “We go on hoof; no flying.” Stonebolt wanted to argue, but she simply closed her mouth before she could speak and they made off.

Leafwind saw that Frostburn had left her birthday ribbon, discarded on the floor and picked it up. She was quickly whisked away by Steelmind’s magic and put on his back. She looked around at all the crowds of fleeing and migrating Trossels, teleporting, flying, or just running away.

“Steelmind,” Leafwind asked. “What’s gonna happen?” he sighed. Leafwind was a very young little filly, but she wasn’t a baby. He’d have to tell her and she’d just have to accept it.

“Well, Leafwind,” he said. “It’s not very good. A bunch of very bad things are going to happen in a few days and everypony has to leave.” She looked down at the ribbon.

“Is it Frostburn’s fault,” she asked. Steelmind shook his head. Frostburn wasn’t capable of doing something like unleashing global cataclysm voluntarily. Aquashine simply strutted by, flicking her mane out of her eyes.

“Well, Steel,” she said. “Looks like your marefriend just doomed the world.” As always, Zephyroak went to his side.

“Back off, Aquashine,” she growled.

“Look, I so don’t have time for you, Zeph,” she said. “Really, you used to be cool. Later, losers.” She teleported away as Steelmind put Leafwind down and trotted off, feeling something pulling on his tail. He looked down to see Leafwind, holding on tightly.

“We have to go after Frostburn,” she said, looking up at him with the widest eyes she could muster. “You’re a Thought Trossel. Can’t you, like, track her or something?” he sighed, pushing his glasses up.

“Leafwind, I would need something of hers to do that.” Leafwind held up the ribbon. “Zephyroak, you coming?” she sighed.

“of course I am,” she said. She turned to her parents, gathering up their things before taking off.

“Hey, mom, dad,” she called. “I can bring Steelmind and Leafwind on a dangerous pilgrimage to find my best friend in parts unknown, right?”

“Sure, honey,” her father responded absently. “Just keep your cousin safe.” They flew off, carrying their bags with them.

“See, they don’t care. Alright, which way do we go?”

Frostburn didn't stop crying the entire walk, which lasted what felt like hours. Infernalo drowned it out by pulling out his book from his bags while Stonebolt had managed to calm Frostburn down enough to get her to stop crying.

   “Infernalo,” she sniffed. “I said I was sorry. I didn't know about that box; it could've been anypony to bring this upon us.” He shot a look of disgust over his shoulder, before turning back to his book. I deserve that, Frostburn thought, trying her hardest not to start crying again. Stonebolt put a hoof reassuringly, to which Frostburn instinctively looked over at her Thunder Trossel sister.

   “Frosty,” she asked. “Are you okay?” Frostburn shook her head fiercely.

   “I doomed our home,” she said, her voice shaking and becoming harder and harder to fight back tears. “Everypony is going to die because of me.” She burst into tears once again before she could go on. Stonebolt decided to give her some space and caught up with Infernalo, who'd finished the latest chapter.

     “Don't you think that you're a little hard on her,” Stonebolt asked.

   “She's the same age as you, but twenty minutes younger,” Infernalo reminded her. “If you'd done this, you wouldn't be reacting this way. I feel pain over the fate of our home and friends too, but life goes on.”

   “You know just how sensitive and emotional she is,” Stonebolt said defensively. “Besides, we really look up to you as our big brother. Frostburn practically worships you.” Infernalo scoffed.

   “That's just because—unfortunately—we're family,” he pointed out. “Anyway, Frostburn loved Steelmind, you had Zephyroak's brother, and I had the lovely Aquashine.” Stonebolt groaned.

   “Even Leafwind knew that was dead on arrival,” she said. “And leave Oakstem out of this. You don't even—”

   “Enough,” Frostburn shouted in an authoritative and commanding tone Frostburn used whenever she was too frustrated with a situation to let it continue. “I'm exhausted, so let's just see if we can't rest up at the nearest town over there.” she pointed a hoof at a small little town in the distance. Infernalo wasn't going to ignore that he was also exhausted and decided to lead them into the town.