Chapter 1
It was a rather warm day in the Crystal Kingdom, ponies were happily going about their day with a usual routine.
The kingdom was far warming then outside its rather small borders in the tundra that lead to the train station, many dangerous creatures lived out there, many thought of as pure legends, but only legends those few that get lost and survive the trip back to civilization ever tell of. Though they are adamantly hesitant in telling of the foreboding creatures inside the insidious frozen wasteland.
Many tales of bipedal giant furry creatures living in it are one common tale the survivors have. Always so closely related to one another you’d think they were more than just a tale.
The creatures were white as the snow that surrounds their home, making them an invisible foe in the harsh constant blizzards that run through the deadly wasteland. They are strong enough to defend against the forms of magic unicorns use and are crafty enough to take down their chosen prey with ease despite the kind of prey. These creature’s are known for being alone and attacking whenever their home has been disturbed, thought to be territorial and protective of their hunting grounds they chased the survivors all through the wasteland, making even less of them come back than shining Armor would like to come back alive.
Shining watched over his balcony at the border between his citizen’s lands and the frozen hell that waited outside of it. He stared on, contemplating the newest problem that came up with these eyewitness accounts and the survival rate of the missing ponies along the tundra.
Cadence walked out onto the balcony and stopped just behind the white unicorn, “honey what are you doing out here?” She said softly as he broke his focus of the outer plains.
“Nothing sweetheart, it’s just, so many ponies have gotten lost in this deadly land around us and so few of those that get lost come back alive. Even more so the fact that all of them have the same kind of story to tell with these monsters, it’s just unsettling.” Shining sighed and nuzzled up to his wife.
“It’s okay darling, but there is little we can do until we can get stretch out the borders safely. I’m afraid those that are getting lost have no choice but to take care of themselves and each other, once our kingdom’s problems have been taken care of we can focus on making sure the ponies don’t disappear like the last two.” Cadence smiled at her husband as he looked up to her. “Now c’mon. We need to get you something to eat. You skipped breakfast and it’s almost time for lunch.”
The winds started picking up and Shining shivered slightly. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.”
_________ Somewhere inside the frozen wasteland, 010:24:16 AM
The sounds of stone pickaxes hitting rock were resounding inside of a cavern that was closed off with some strange article of cloth. It stretched over and kept most of the wind and the snow at bay. Torches and other heat sources were strewn about inside the rocky area that kept it warm against the outside elements. Furry paws held the pickaxes as rocks shattered and the clinking of diamonds and other rare rocks were heard being loaded into carts.
The carts were held on small rusty rails that lead through into the deeper parts of the mine, diamond dogs were going about hard at work in trying to obtain their precious materials they oh so desperately needed.
The dogs went back and forth along the cave walls on the first level of the mine. They made sure to get every little bit they could from the small veins of iron, coal and gems that rain along the walls and ceiling, being careful to avoid collapses and other dangers. At the end of the mine was a ladder that lead deeper into it, a second level that had much of the same as the top floor but had much more to it. Small tents were around and it was much wider in space, the lighting and forms of heat were kept orderly and safe. Away from anything that could catch fire and destroy their hard work. This level had entire families of diamond dogs all in groups talking with one another, some mothers taking care of their pups while most of the men were up on the top level clearing it out.
It looked like a good old fashioned campgrounds, only with tent’s and it being underground. Along the walls were ventilation shafts of sorts that were being used to air out the third level’s work, it was specifically used to smelt and craft the ores into viably useful items to help the dogs survive, the workers down there were tirelessly working to get things done fast for some reason. Their once glorious coats of blue and green were stained black as night from the coal dust that floated through the air. The dogs seemed to be smelting down the iron and imbuing the remains of the melted metal with the gems, they worked tirelessly beating the hunks of metal into an obvious item of one thing or another, whether it be a tool, weapon, or chunk of armor they made it, lines of these finished materials lay in separate racks against the wall away from the anvil’s and furnaces.
Rather than a ladder, a staircase lead down to the fourth level of the huge caves, this one was darker and only a dim light from the torches on the wall showed there was anything there. The fourth level was lined with cages that jutted out of the walls the torches were lined on, each housing their own separate creatures. The creatures were very melancholic and kept to the corners of the cages as a diamond dog walked calmly and slowly past them. A few animalistic cries of sadness rang through from some of the cages and the dog seemed to ignore them, he just continued walking calmly to the very last cage at the end of the level. It was a far sturdier cage that was not made of iron bars, but diamond bars for the extra strength they promised. Inside was not a lone bipedal creature with fur white as snow, but three, two adult creatures and a child one held tightly in its arms.
The dog banged a spear against the bars to garner their attention, making sure they were afraid. The one not holding the young creature roared threateningly at the dog who smirked at this. It seemed to amuse the dog when the fluff balls tried to be scary. So protective of their homes and villages these guardian creatures were. At least they’re useful for work once they are broken. The dog had on him a few elements of torture; a whip, chains, and lots of mismatched clamps and knives that who knew what they are used for.
A smaller diamond dog that wasn’t noticeable in the poorly lit room stood at the front of the locked cell with a saluted pose about him. With a few hand gestures by the taller dog, the smaller one opened the cell door. The creature that was not holding onto the child lunged at the bigger diamond dog in an attempt to end his life, only to be forced back by a collar clasping onto his neck from the smaller diamond dog.
“Time for snow man to face his scheduled training.” The diamond dog maliciously smiled as he said this, walking calmly into the caged room and grabbing something from his side.
The diamond dog had forgotten about the female creature and her child who hid in the corner shadows. She jumped out at the dog in a sudden spurt of bravery and managed to give the dog a slice across the face. She hurried and broke the collar while the two dogs were dazed by the surprise. The male creature roared and threw the smaller diamond dog against the far wall of the cell before exiting and slamming the cell shut, breaking the locking mechanism in the process.
The three snow creatures ran through the upstairs in an attempt to escape. They made it to the top of the stairs to see that they surprised the civilian dogs. They scurried away from the three as they ran through to get to the ladder out.
A spear whizzed through the air and smacked into the male snow creature’s back, jutting just barely through the other side. It roared in agony and turned around to face the dogs that came after them with spears, screaming for blood.
The creature ran after them after pushing his mate towards the ladder further and rushed head on into the group of diamond dog soldiers, throwing them around like playthings as they made more and more wounds. The female didn’t look back and rushed to the only viable exit with her screaming baby in hands.
A diamond dog was climbing down the ladder and saw as the female creature jumped into the air and grabbed hold of the ladder just above the dog. She kicked him with a mighty foot and he fell with a loud crack on the rough cave floor, a splattered mess of red. The male creature jumped after her. Bloody and weak, he managed to get to the ladder before the dogs could catch up.
He pulled himself up and heard civilian female dogs run out of the way of the three snow creatures. The males were climbing down the ladder to the surface level rapidly in an attempt to catch up and stop the three. Barks of commands were heard all throughout the tunnels and the three soon found themselves surrounded, the child still crying in the mother snow creatures arms.
_________ Crystal falls just outside crystal Empire borders, 03:05:09 PM
The waterfall was majestic and bright. The day was a happy one compared to the previous weeks with the news that had been floating by, but the rumors died down and the stories were unimportant again. Everything seemed fine.
Dodge Burner was a rough and tough unicorn. Rather weak with magic, the unicorn made up for it in earth pony strength. He was rathy and husky with a silver mane and white coat, it shimmered from the sweat of hard work in the fields surrounding his home on the crystal falls. It was his job to farm crystal berries which would be sold at the market.
Dodge sighed as the last cart of berries was being sent off to town, he smiled to himself and set off on the trek back home, to the top of the crystal falls.
It was a rather short hike going up and down, but it was strenuous if he was not careful, being so tired everyday from the hard work left him little time to converse with too many ponies in town. Everything was so repetitive to the unicorn, get up, eat breakfast, go to work, go home, eat dinner, go to bed.
Dodge was now almost to his home, quickening his pace slightly at the reminder of a nice hot meal away from the outside cold, he was always baffled at how the waterfall and the pool of water never froze over from the cold, it may have been a hot spring, of sorts, but it was still amazing.
Dodge heard crying just off in the distance toward his home, he started hurrying even faster and almost broke into a trot as he wondered what that could’ve been, it couldn’t be a baby in this tempered environment so far from the empire.
True enough it wasn’t what Dodge had expected to find when he saw his doorstep. There, on the welcome mat to the entryway of his home, was a small white abominable snow child. Unsurprisingly, Dodge Burner was flabbergasted at this; he didn’t know what to do, this was something of myth and legend.
What worried and scared Dodge was the dangerous amounts of blood all around where the child was lain, some was even stained in the child’s coat. Fear soared through Dodge to a higher level than he ever had before, but there was something else underlying it, something lessar that poked at the back of his mind.
‘What was it?’ The unicorn thought as he tried to place it, it was on the tip of his tongue but at the same time so far away he could not even grasp at it. Then it hit him as he looked down again at the little helpless innocent creature crying and wailing, it was melancholy, all for what would have happened to cause the poor thing to end up on his doorstep.
Dodge opened his door and used his magic to lift the poor creature onto his back, hurrying inside out of the damnable weather outside. He carefully wrapped the child in a blanket and rocked it back and forth, trying to calm the snow child down.
Then an idea hit Dodge. “Yes! Hungry you must be hungry, now do you have-” Dodge looked closer at the snow child and saw it didn’t have teeth. “Alright then let me get you a bottle, darling. I’m sure some nice warm milk is just what you need.” Dodge rushed to the kitchen and started looking for something to use as a makeshift bottle. After awhile, he decided to just use a plastic jar after the milk was heated. He placed a cup in the mini heater oven and waited for the ding, which resounded after a few seconds in there. Dodge carefully took the cup out and poured it into the plastic jar, then brought it into the living room where he sat himself down on his haunches and tried to feed the young child.
“What could have happened to you? You must’ve been through alot, little one, but where are your parents?” Dodge muttered to himself as he watched the snow child drink from the makeshift bottle. “What happened to your family...”
_________
A sword swung down cutting into the snow creatures head. It cried out in agony one last time before its body fell limp and its head fell to the ground. There was a diamond dog holding onto the sword that had ended the snow creature, he seemed pleased with his work and pulled out a rag to wipe away the blood that soaked and stained his weapon. In a gruff and cheery tone, he spoke up. “That’s the last one, boss.”
“Good, we can’t have another slip up with these defective revolting things. Those escapees need to be found,” came the reply from another diamond dog, this one very contrasted to the others in comparison. He had black fur where the regular dog had blue, the left arm was very muscly and jagged, scars covering it that reflected years of fighting. The diamond dogs right arm was rather scrawny and less bulky and jagged, it was more rounded and smooth. Scars were similarly placed across the arm almost reflecting the jagged rough left arm.
The ‘boss’ dog turned and left the cell’s floor and went up the steps to the furnace rooms. The dogs that weren’t working on something of importance turned and saluted the head dog as he passed by. He made little attempt to notice them as he headed for the ladder to the civilian level, carefully walking around the bodies that had yet to be removed from the ground and either cremated or buried. He calmly entered a rather sizeable tent with pikes on both sides of the entryway, on top of the pikes, on the sharp tips, were two snow creature heads, one on each end of the pikes.
Once inside, the diamond dog leader looked around, contemplating each corner of his tent. In the center was a table with a vast assortment of maps and papers that were important. To the boss dog’s left was his bed and an assortment of weapons and junk on his right.
The diamond dog spoke up in annoyance to himself. “Nothing escapes my grasp. Nothing.”
__________ Three months later
Dodge and Shining Armor were having a heated debate. The words were almost unintelligible but held a fierce sort of hatred in them. They went back and forth over something and as the snowchild got closer, words became more intelligible and less rage filled. He peered over the corner of the hallway, afraid he would get in trouble if he spoke up while they were arguing.
“-o are not taking him away Shining, and that’s final!” Dodge nearly yelled.
Shining sighed and looked down a bit. He took a breath and spoke up. “I’m sorry, but you can’t take care of him anymore. He isn’t a pony or a griffon or anything like that. Wherever he came from, he needs to go back.”
“Fleeting is just a child!” Dodge lowered his voice and closed his eyes as he softly spoke up, “He may not be a pony or anything we’ve seen before, but he’s proven his worth. He’s sentient like me and you, but you’re just blinded by idiocy.”
“Fleeting Light doesn’t belong here. He’s a snowcreature, something of myth. Something to fear. Not something to take care of.”
“Just trust me Shining, whether you’re the king of the crystal empire or not, I won’t be doing this.”
Shining sighed in defeat. “Fine, you win. You can keep things as is but I urge you to at least take some of my guards in any case. You ma-”
“....Just get out. Get out and never come back.” Dodge Burner opened the door and Shining just silently nodded and left.
The snowchild spoke up from the hallway he was hiding in after Shining left. “D-daddy? What’s wrong?” Fleeting looked up and Dodge with scared and glistening eyes.
“Nothing’s wrong Fleeting. Nothing at all.” He hugged fleeting for a moment to comfort him.
“Dad, I don’t want to have to leave.”
“And you won’t sweetie. Now c’mon, you must be hungry. What would you like for breakfast?” Dodge smiled as he went into the kitchen. At the announcement of breakfast, Fleeting Light nearly jumped for joy pronouncing “Haycakes!”
Dodge just laughed, “Alright then, give me a moment to get things together.”
As Dodge started to get the ingredients out, he missed a pair of red eyes that watched from some distance away. They bore into him through that window before quickly disappearing in the shade of the early morning sun.
__________ Diamond dog cave
Inside the tent of the head diamond dog, he sat quietly glaring at the map that sat in front of him on the table. The light of the small lantern filled the room with a bright glow and he muttered to himself as he dimmed it slightly. The new slave creatures had come in and so far they gave no trouble, but that wasn’t what concerned him so. A long, rather young diamond dog moved the flaps to the entryway and spoke up as the leader faced him.
“We found two of the three escapees boss.”
His face turned from a sour frown to a dark smile. “Where are they then? I don’t hear chains rattling.”
The diamond dog wavered slightly under his leader’s gaze before speaking, “They were dead at the ridge outside crystal pony borders.”
“And the child?”
“Uh, it’s just a child boss. It won’t be able to come after us even if it is alive, but I doubt it is.” The diamond dog smiled as he thought he did an exceedingly good job with what he was appointed to.
The head dog stood up and walked over to the young looking diamond dog who grinned with victory. The lead dog’s face was unreadable and in a swift motion, he swung his fist into the young looking diamond dog’s face. He fell outside of the tent and the leader walked up to him slowly as he backed away, cringing in fear.
He leaned over and grasped the young dog’s neck slightly and spoke up in a low growl. “None are allowed to escape. Dead. Or alive. Got that?”
He lifted the young diamond dog off the ground and he sputtered as he tried to let out a response. He managed, but only barely, to get out a half choked "yes sir” before nearly running out of air. The leader dropped the dog and turned back to his tent. He spoke up in a strict, yet soft tone. “Come get me when you find him,” and then he went back inside.
Shortly afterwards, another dog entered into the living quarters level and barked something just out of range of the lead dog’s earshot. Pretty quickly it caused a chain reaction of diamond dogs running around yelling and barking about the last snowcreature escapee. The lead dog stopped out once more into the cave and yelled, “what’s happening?!” Another dog came to his side and respectively said, “the last of those abominations were found, D’raak sir.”
D’raak turned to the dog and saw it was the same one that had entered his tent not minutes before. “It’s a good thing you did not fail me then. Mobilize the hounds I want it dead in my paws.”
__________
Fleeting was eating his haycakes happily when a knock came to the door. Dodge put down a rag he had in his hoof and went to see who it was, hoping it was who he expected it to be.
Opening the door, the other side held the sight of a rather older pony; she had a tan coat that greyed in patches randomly, her mane and tail combined as a pristine red with green highlights. She smiled at Dodge Burner and spoke up, “Hello Dodge, I hope I’m not late.”
Stepping to the side, Dodge let the mare enter. “No you’re just in time Matilda. I’m sorry for asking you to babysit on such short notice.”
She turned back to him and spoke up. “Oh pshaw, deary. It’s the least I can do for you and Fleet here.”
In a matter of seconds of her sentence finishing, the little pitter patter of feet from the kitchen announced the rushing of Fleeting. This was further expressed with his over anxious and excited “aunty Tilda!” war cry as he jumped into the air and hugged Matilda from the safety of her back.
He quickly fell back onto the ground as Matilda just laughed it off. “Wow go on dear. You need to go, don’t you?”
Dodge chuckled lightly and announced. “Fleeting, your aunt here is going to watch you for awhile while I’m getting groceries in town. It won’t take long and I’ll be back in a few hours.”
Fleeting Light bounced around his aunt Matilda but stopped and hugged his father. “Okay daddy. See you when you get back.”
Dodge hugged him back and said “bye” before letting go and leaving for the crystal empire shopping district, whistling a cheery tone.
The pair of eyes were back, this time flanked with four or so more sets of eyes. They silently watched the house Dodge had left for something. Something else that was somehow important to them. Something strange.
__________
A few miles from Dodge’s land and home was a small shack. Inside this shack lived a lonely old stallion that sat for hours; resting the days away. Today in specific he was laying inside a hammock tied tightly to two beams inside his house near the fire pit. He managed to stay toasty with the fire but its loud crackling kept him from easing into a blissful sleep.
Outside of the rather calm winds it was a nice winter morning. Nothing out of the ordinary the stallion could tell, that is until he heard some loud crashes outside his abode. He turned slowly and stumbled off of his heaven-like hammock, slowly pacing himself towards the door.
He yawned into his hoof before opening the door. It groaned loudly in defiance and he saw out into the snowy wonderland outside......
........just as a diamond dog howled into the cold open air. They caught wind of the stallion before he had time to react and started surrounding his home. He managed to shut the door out of fright as one tossed an axe at the elderly pony. It missed and hit the door, jutting into it, its edge cutting through and getting jammed.
The elderly pony tried to get out through the window in the back as the door crashed open. He fell through as a spear nicked him in the left hoof. Blood dripped out of his hoof into the snow as he tried to run away, adrenaline filling his system. A few more spears came flying at him as he zig zagged away in fright. One every now and then nicking him. He didn’t get far though, as a final spear got him in the right leg, jutting out the other side covered in muscle and blood.
The stallion kept going though, attempting to limp to safety. He looked back and saw a spear hit him in his other leg, and then they stopped. The dogs rushed at the stallion and forced him to stop his feeble crawl away. As they held him down one stood calmly in front of the squirming stallion and calmly spoke up when the elderly equine started into a coughing fit.
After the stallion quieted down on the coughs, he managed out a wheezing question in fear. “W-what do you want with me?”
The dog smiled towards the fearful stallion and spoke up. “Pony will live if he knows where the snowcreature is.”
The stallion had tears in his eyes as he tried sputtering out a response. It quickly mutated from trying to force out words to a very violent coughing fit. Droplets of blood fell out of his mouth as he managed to quiet the coughing, he spoke up in a nerve racked whisper. “I.. I don’t know anything of the sort. Please just... just let me go...” The stallion burst into blubbering hysterics as the diamond dog gained a sour look. He growled to himself as he went behind the elderly stallion and ripped a spear out of his leg, the pony cried in agony before being quickly silenced by the same spear protruding from his head now.
The diamond dog pulled the spear back out from the pony’s skull and barked out an order. “search nearby homes. Find me snowcreature, kill any ponies if useless.” The dogs darted away in different directions, looking for the young snowcreature.
Author's Note
alright guys, so this is part 1 of the 2 part short story. Hope you guys like it its kind of different from the usual stuff.
have a happy new years to you all.
