Shattered Souls:
Prologue

Daggertail swooped through the mists, bathing his glistening pale blue scales in this swirling frost, giving them a shimmering sheen in the morning sun. He broke the top of the high storm clouds with the tall, rugged spikes of his shoulder blades.

His wide silver-gray wings filled with chilled air as they beat the air, stirring the snow and hail behind him as he swam through the cold morning air. He grasped the jutting tip of the icy peaks with his rough talons, cutting thick grooves into the icy surface below him.

He swung his narrow snout north, towards the crystal kingdom. Normally he would be impressed by the wonder of the cities grandeur; its spiraling towers of sparkling sapphire reaching for the sky. Even from his dazzlingly high perch, the highest of the towers could still be seen piercing the tops of the white blizzard clouds.

Today, however, the sight bothered him. They had broken the treaty. They had stolen his son.

He shifted his weight, lurching towards the city. Speed gathered as he dove straight down, his wings opening slowly as he descended into the white flurries of snow. He closed his eyes, lifting himself into the air mere feet above the snow caked ground before gliding up to a more reasonable height.

He sucked in the bitter air through his nostrils, the newly chilled air flowing back out from his slightly opened mouth to run in streams down the back of his shoulders. Ribbons ice shards followed in his wake, scattering in the increasing fury of the storm.

His eyes snapped open, and narrowed in a determined glare. The city lingered in the distance before him; a clear spot in the storm. Their magics protected them from the sting of the winter, but nothing would protect them from the icy daggers of a sombre drake.

He rose in the air and banked to the side, breathing a deep breath of already frosted air. His weight increased as he plummeted to the side of the city. His mouth gaped wide, a grim, frowning visage of pale gray peaks streaming out clouds of billowing ice and snow around him. He beat his wings, stirring his icy breath behind him as he tilted to fly wide around the border of the great crystal towers.

Clouds of ice and maliciously twisting winds followed him, dragging themselves around the border of the city. Daggertail dragged ribbons of the thick, unnatural ice around back over itself.

The terrified screams of the crystal ponies rent the now howling wind. He forced himself forward, hardening his resolve as he pressed on faster. He never wanted to fight them, but they had forced his hand.

The clouds grew and the winds grew into a howling gale. Flurries of snow and ice stacked atop each other, raising higher and higher into the sky, leaning in towards the great, wide pillar of crystal in the center of the city.

The glints of the towers began to die out one by one, as the sun itself became blotted out by the slowly rising curtain of cold white clouds. The walls of the blizzard closed in slowly, encompassing the sun, and the sky itself as Daggertail wove himself in tight circles, the bristles on his back and wings protruding now and again, as though a cluster of sharks swam through the already deadly storm.

Crystal ponies fled to the center tower, their homes still warm, but the magic of the barrier flickered at the weight of the crushing winds. The storm glowed for an instant, the magic of the Crystal King's magic, but it shattered under the sheer force of the blizzard. Snow seemed to trickle down at first, but then the hail fell, and the storm itself seemed to fall like a blanket of furious winds and ice on the castles and peaked towers.

The shadow of Daggertail shrunk high up into the sky for a moment. He flew upward towards the sun, and then folded his wings back to his sides, letting himself fall as he closed his eyes. He plummeted towards the ground, spreading his wings in a sudden motion. He bulleted into whatever remained of the shield with such force that a loud crash followed him through, sending tendrils of foggy tendrils to spread through the nearby streets, bearing dagger sized whirling shards of ice in with them.

He pulled himself upright with mighty flaps of his wings, sending great booming shudders through the air around him. The crystalline ponies beneath him scurried for cover as his talons found purchase in the smoothly carved out ground.

He stretched himself up on his hind legs, launching himself up to dig the claws of his fore legs and wings into the sides of the giant tower. His hardened wings wrapped the walls and covered the windows, trapping anyopony inside as he pulled himself up high enough to look into the top chamber. His eye glared into the chamber dwarfing the ponies there, easily twice the size of the gray maned King Courage.

“You,” Daggertail's voice rumbled, shaking the walls of the chamber, “Have broken the treaty. Do you not remember the deal you proposed?”

“What do you speak of!” The king stepped forward, his own eyes, though old, carried a similar determination. “We have done nothing to defy the treaty! Are not the mountains clear and your hordes untouched?”

The ominous silver eye narrowed in anger.

“Do not speak as though you do not know,” The voice boomed, “Where is Frostfang?”

“Who is. . .”

“Your son?” The ruby maned unicorn behind the king interrupted. “We have done nothing! He attacked our. . !”

“ATTACKED!” The dragons voice boomed with unearthly fury, its' eyes widening in spiteful shock. “WHAT HAS BECOME OF MY SON!?”

The king stammered, confused; unsure of anything that had just happened.

Before he could answer, the dragon's voice boomed in anger, tendrils of frost seeping from over the balconies, “YOU WILL RETURN MY SON TO ME!”

The king tried to answer, but fear choked the words in his throat.

The dragon's voice became lower, shaking the tower as though the earth itself had given way to its power, “Fine, if you plan to hold my son hostage, then I shall do likewise unto you!”

The kings eyes widened in realization, and he leaped in front of the small pink filly hiding behind the ruby maned colt. His hooves touched the ground moments before he was batted across the room, sent reeling into the low wall short of the balcony.

The dragon grasped the small, glistening pony in a cupped fist, beating his massive wings as he launched himself into the air.

The draconian silhouette faded into the now receding mists as the voice sundered the air, “You will have your precious Cadence back, only after my son is returned to me.”

Author's Note

Sorry if the format is weird for this. I wrote it at home, and I'm not really that good with technology.