//------------------------------// // Chapter One: Live by the Steel, Die by the Sword // Story: An Icy Existence // by Dee Bee Doo-wop Cooper //------------------------------// An Icy Existence Chapter 1: Live by the Steel, Die by the Sword By: DigitDaemon Edited (and much much more) By: Bloodlord Twilight shivered again. It wasn’t because of the inches of ice she was trapped in. No, she had encased herself. Possessing the inherit magics of all three races, alicorns were surprisingly durable. What she trembled at, was her mistake. The thing locked deep within her metaphysical energy matrix that controlled her magic. It was the thing that had to be stopped. She had to be stopped. "Why do you resist so?" Twilight fought back, suppressing that thing and focusing on the ice around her. Her mind wandered for a moment, back when she was first crowned as a princess. Euphoria, bliss, excitement, all those things could have described that moment. But there was one dark though, a final fear that didn't approach her until the celebrations had died down; eternal life would grant her the ability to withstand time, but watch her friends die around her. "You could just accept the inevitable." Twilight shivered as the cruel, sweet voice of temptation slithered through her mind. "No, I am perfectly happy here." Twilight reasoned back. "Ha. You’re already bored out of your mind, and not a day has gone by. I do have to commend you, problem solving as a means to stay sane, quite clever." "Thank you, its simple psychology, I…" Twilight would have scowled if she could. "I know what you are doing." "It is a shame you waste your talents frozen in ice." With that final comment there was no further response from the voice in her mind, but Twilight knew that it was right. She wouldn’t stay frozen for long. One day before: Arrested Thesis gazed at the small town in the distance. His eyes were full of hate and ambition that was only slightly warmer than the ice clinging to the black cloak that covered his pale body. The only other notable feature, was the silver gleam of the hilt of a sword poking out from the side of his clothing. He may have been betrayed by his crew simply because they had been hungry and cold. He had promised them that they would be forever remembered by history. As soon as things got tough though, they had mutinied, but it was time for him to make a kingdom of loyal ponies. No one would disobey his new power. He couldn’t help but grin at the sight of his first conquest, so peaceful and so utterly naive to the reckoning he would soon deliver. Yes, they will be perfect for your new army master, one that will wipe the living scourge of this land. Arrested Thesis looked down at the sword by his side and smiled grimly as the echoing words faded from his mind. How loyal, he thought to himself. Far off a great beast shifted and let out a small chuckle. Arrested These looked back out over the surrounding countryside, “I will finally have my day. The power of the sword I wield now will grant me what should have been mine in the first place. I will rule all that-” “Excuse me, I don’t mean to interrupt your monologue, but I think that I should probably stop you before you get any further down that track.” Arrested Thesis spun violently towards the speaker and drew his sword, making a hasty slashing motion in the hope of quickly putting an end to the life of the fool that dared to interrupt him. Whether or not he was talking to himself out loud, no one would disrespect their future king like that. Much to his disappointment, the speaker was actually hovering about ten feet away from him. It was a lavender pegasus mare, with a navy blue mane and tail. At least he thought so until he saw her horn light up, and a bright light filled his vision. He quickly jumped to the side and began running around the alicorn in an attempt to flank her and keep out of the path of her magic. Arrested Thesis quickly found out however, that the newly crowned princess, Twilight Sparkle, was far more gifted with magic than he had hoped and instead of a few lucky shots on her part, every spell was a near miss of him and they were getting closer each time. Thinking quickly, he caught the next bolt on his blade and used the ancient magic inside to throw it back at his opponent, who had to spend her next spell deflecting her own attack. Arrested Thesis used the distraction to charge at the alicorn princess and leap into the air, but as he brought his sword down, Twilight twisted her wings and threw herself out of the path of the sword. But she wasn’t fast enough. Twilight cried out in pain as the tip of the blade cut into her foreleg, and jerked back. She felt emptier somehow, like the sword had taken part of her.   Arrested Thesis landed on all fours and spun around to once again face his opponent, but he only caught a glance of her figure before it was gone in a flash of light. He quickly spun again, trying to catch sight of her again, but every time he had her in view, she would teleport again. Getting tired of the alicorn’s rabbit hole strategy, Arrested Thesis slammed his blade into the ground, the runes along the blade flaring with power as they inhibited Twilight’s ability to teleport. As Twilight came to a halt in front of the forsaken swordpony he made a full body lunge at her that she only narrowly avoided. Without teleportation, the princess was slow and vulnerable. Weak. Or so he assumed. As Arrested Thesis swung at her again, a blade of magenta magical energy hissed into existence to deflect it. The second strike was more powerful and shattered Twilight’s defense without trouble. The Princess jumped backwards as her assailant continued his advance. Deciding that she had no choice but to play the madpony’s game for the time being, Twilight once again focused on her conjurations, this time a perfect replica of a knights longsword appeared before her. Power thundered as the blades meet. Sparks flying as Death’s steel met the force of a Goddess of Magic. Neither side seemed able to yield as they danced between parries and strikes, counter attacks and magic. Arrested Thesis for all his skill and experience, could not overcome the raw magical power of Twilight Sparkle. She in turn could not overpower his barrage of attacks. The two circled each other warily now, each waiting for the other to let their guard down. Arrested Thesis made a jab at Twilight, only to have it counter attacked. He may have underestimated her. “You have potential, Princess Twilight Sparkle, but no skill” shouted Arrested. “You’d make a worthy Lieutenant in my new Empire.” “I don’t think you’ll have the pleasure,” she called out, and pointed to the ground at his hooves. Arrested Thesis’ eyes went wide as rune beneath him activated. She had played him like a violin; while he was wasting time fighting her, she had placed a sleeping glyph on the ground where they were fighting and had been biding her time while the glyph charged to full power, and unfortunately for him, it just had. Arrested Thesis mouthed a silent curse as he lost consciousness and tumbled to the ground, his dreadful blade, still glowing with power, clattering to a stop next to him. Twilight sighed in relief as her magic dissipated. As she looked around to survey the damage however, she realized something wasn’t right. Arrested Thesis had been knocked out as Twilight had intended. But as he lay there, the ground beneath him quickly turned black as everything around died and rapidly decayed. The air became thick with the smell of rot and heavy with an aura of powerful death magic. A nearby tree went from a healthy brown with branches covered in green to grey and deathly as it shed its leaves. Finally, after extending for another thirty feet, the circle of death finally faded and the rest of the land was left untouched. “What in the world? I’ve never seen magic behave like this,” Twilight mumbled as she pawed the decayed ground. It didn't look right, it didn't feel right to her. She carefully stood along the edge of the decay and closed her eyes. Twilight reached out and examined the area with her magic, looking for more detail. But as she laid out her own magical field, she was shocked by what she saw. Her would be assailant’s energy was flowing freely into the wicked sword that he had carried, now resting beside him. It was as if the sword had been reaching out for energy in the area around it, taking from the plants and trees, before locking on to him. Her observation was in vain though because before she could even think of a way to act, she saw the last of his soul consumed by the sword leaving him dead and covered in sharp ice crystals. “Is this… Is this soul magic? What the hay is this thing?” Twilight asked out loud, wishing she was back at the Royal Archives. Maybe the answers to her questions were there. Twilight didn’t know much about this type of magic herself, she had only come across it in references, mostly legal ones, and a few manuals that her brother had brought back on how to detect it and what it felt like to be attacked using soul magic. All she did know is that it was highly illegal, one of the worst magical crimes that a pony could commit. The sword was horrific in appearance, certainly something from the frozen depths of Tartarus. It was made of polished steel, the grip bound in leather and adorned with metal rings. A strange skull sat on the blade above the hilt, its horns reaching up and wrapping itself along the guard. The blade itself was uniquely designed with a pair of almost scythe like projections protruding from the base of the skull, and then an asymmetrically designed blade with wicked serrations reaching up a third of one side before tapering off to point. Ancient, cryptic runes, in some language that Twilight couldn’t make out, ran down the middle of the blade. “After I had stunned him, the sword must have… been triggered to drain the life energy from him, some sort of fail safe maybe?” Twilight frowned as she studied the blade from a distance. She was certainly afraid. She knew that great power and great darkness dwelt beneath its surface, but nothing about what to do with it. Twilight carefully picked it up in her telekinetic grasp with the intent of disposing of it, but she immediately lost her equilibrium in a massive wave of cold and nausea and fell to the ground. A quick glance around confirmed that she hadn’t started the same mechanism that had killed the stallion, and the sword was still in her grasp. But something had awoken. Her magical grip had instantly frozen to the handle of the sword. Panicking, Twilight tried her hardest to shake the blade out of her grip, but no matter how much she pried, and shook the blade around, she couldn’t drop it. What was just as bad was something from it was pushing its way through the magic link. No matter how much she fought back, no matter how many layers of defense she threw up, it pressed on. As it drew closer to the front of her conscious thought, she felt icy tendrils wrap around her from the inside. "Do not fear me Princess of Magic. I am the key to your future, our future. Together, we will soon rule this land." Twilight struggled to stay in control. Every chilling, sweet word of seduction felt like the breath of a winter’s storm across her mind and every moment she fought it, she felt her mind freeze over a little more.   “But I don’t want to rule Equestria…” Twilight sank to the ground as her defenses began to fail. “Well… I guess I kind of already do in part, but I don’t need you…” Twilight’s eyes slowly drifted closed as her final thought of resistance faded. "Then you will serve me, won’t you dear?" Twilight’s eyes snapped back open and were radiating a bright purple glow. In a reflexive reaction, the magic around her gathered up and exploded into a huge beam of brilliant violet light into the sky. Her magic now bolstered by the magic of the planet itself began to break the sword down into simply the information that was once matter, swallowing it up and absorbing it into the vast ethereal body of magic that Twilight governed. Darkness was the last thing she remembered, That and a laugh, but she couldn’t tell if it was the voice, or her. Twilight groaned as feeling began to return to her, and wished it hadn’t. She felt like she was literally on death’s door, but something kept her back. Every joint ached, every muscle burned, but the worst was the chill coming from deep within her. It was as if she had swallowed a giant ice cube, and then fell asleep outside in a snowstorm. The chill permeated every space of her being, it felt like ice water was dumped into her head. Slowly, she opened her eyes and struggled to get into a sitting position, clutching her head at the same time, begging under her breath for the throbbing to stop.   Then she remembered where she was. Twilight’s eyes flared opened and she leaped to her hooves as the adrenaline surged through her body. A bright flare from her horn, and a shield was in place. But nothing was there. Twilight carefully deactivated the shield and looked around, memories of what just happened came flooding back into her mind. The pony she had… fought against, still laid in his own heap of ice, the tree was dead, and the sword… Twilight spun around, even taking to the air to look for the sword that the pony had, but she couldn’t find it anywhere. Still in the air, she closed her eyes and tried to focus her magic, but found it to be fuzzy. Frowning, she returned to ground and tried looking again.   As Twilight slowly regained control over her magic, she thought it was over, that she had destroyed the cursed sword once and for all.  As she continued to observe herself however, she realized that she was actually much colder than she should have been. She had thought that it had just been a reaction to the recent events at first because she wasn’t uncomfortable at all, but her internal temperature was deathly low. Twilight didn’t like the implications of this, she was responsible for the innate magic that flowed through the land of Equestria as well as the arcane magic that was used to make everyday life for the ponies of Equestria easier. Her magic had become almost sort of symbiotic with the latent magic of Equestria. So, how would her magic effect Equestria if it was changed permanently? Obviously, she didn’t need to worry about legal repercussions for the stallion’s death. After all, who would question a princess when she said she had been assaulted? That didn’t help her conscience though. There was also the problem of what actually had happened to the sword, Twilight could feel its aura of hate, but it was part of her own magic now. “Hey, you alright?” Twilight leapt up and spun around in surprise and found a very familiar pegasus hovering behind her. “Rainbow Dash! How many times have I told you not to sneak up on me?” “I dunno, but probably around thirty four times now.” “What the hay happened here Twi?” asked Rainbow Dash as she landed. “First there was the light show display, and then there is all this dead… stuff. Twilight had a moment of panic as Rainbow Dash peeked around her in the hope of discovering what was going on, realizing that she had more pressing matters than her friend’s constant teasing and trickery. “Um...yeah, he’s dead.” she said reluctantly. Rainbow Dash instinctively backed up a bit, “You didn’t, you know...murder him?” “Yes, Dash. I, the Princess of Magic, Bearer of an Element of Harmony and Celestia’s personal protege, randomly murdered somepony,” Twilight deadpanned as she levitated a rock over to herself and touched it because a unicorn or alicorn could not directly feel their own magic. She immediately frowned when she made contact, finding it freezing instead of being warmed by her magic.   Rainbow Dash, realizing the stupidity of her assumption, looked away shamefully. “Sorry Twi, I wasn’t thinking when I asked that.” Twilight simply nodded and placed the rock back down. “I know, sorry. I’m a little… distracted here.” Rainbow looked over again as morbid curiosity and a need for reassurance of personal safety took over. “So… what did happen here?” “I… I’m not sure how to say,” struggled Twilight as she tried to find the words. "You could just kill her and save yourself the trouble," spoke the voice in her head. Except it was different this time, cold, disinterested and not exactly as evil. "Also, is that mane natural or does she dye it? In my village, she would have been quite the looker. I suppose it is good she is not in my village though, she would also be dead." “Um, Twi? Are you okay?” Rainbow Dash asked. “You look like you saw a ghost.” Twilight slowly shook her head. “Not exactly…” “Oh, well that’s-” “But I am pretty sure I just heard one.” Rainbow Dash studied her friend for a moment, hoping that Twilight was just joking with her. She doubted very much that that was the case though; Twilight was not one to start joking about a serious matter and certainly not if there was somepony dead. “Can I help you somehow?” The pegasus asked wearily, not wanting to upset Twilight further. “I need you to get the Princesses,” replied Twilight. “I need to talk with them, ask them to come to the library as soon as you can. Then, please tell the local sergeant that this body needs to be collected for further examination.” “Right,” said Rainbow Dash with a nod. She started to fly off but circled back around to Twilight, who had started to slowly walk back towards town. “Um, Twilight, couldn’t you use your magic to contact them a lot faster?” Twilight looked up at her flying friend, her face was serious and emotionless, but Rainbow Dash could read the fear in her eyes. “It’s too dangerous to use my magic right now. Hurry please.” And with that, she turned and continued her slow walk back to her house, leaving Rainbow Dash confused and more than a little disturbed. When the two princess teleported into the library, Twilight had almost vaporized them, or attempted to. She was already jumpy and it seemed that after absorbing the sword, her reactions had become far more violent. She had been able to catch herself though and snuff out her magic before the princesses had completely re-coalesced. “Twilight, your house smells thickly of magic,” Luna said as she looked around the dark room, sensing the energy of a failed or aborted spell. “And appears to be a war zone. Tell me, dear sister, is this typical of a small town library?” “Oh,” Twilight quickly looked around for a cover. “I was just...re-shelving books,” Twilight smiled in hopes of subverting suspicion. Luna countered with a confused look of her own. “Because it helps calm my nerves?” Luna continued to just stare at her. “After I knocked them over...to calm my nerves?” Celestia, wanting to halt any budding conflict, found her opportunity to cut in, “And what is it that is grating on your nerves, my faithful student?” “Well…” Twilight hesitated, trying to think of a good way to summarize the recent event of that day. “I, uh, swallowed a crazy sword.” Both monarchs gave Twilight a worried and confused look. “I… didn’t know thou wast into the circus arts,” said Luna apprehensively. “Perhaps you should seek medical attention instead of us or book arrangement?”. Twilight shook her head vigorously, “Not physically swallowed.” “Then how?” Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow of her own. Twilight let out a sigh and began explaining the previous events of the day as they made their way upstairs. “And then I ask Spike to leave and I have been sitting here waiting for you since then.” Twilight finished. “Sorting books.” Celestia interjected. Twilight gave her a confused look but quickly got her meaning, “Yeah...sorting books.” “And knocking over bookcases.” “Yeah,” said Twilight as she watched the Sister’s exchange glances. “We know of the sword you speak of,” said Luna with care. “We are responsible for its creation.” “I don’t understand,” said Twilight, looking eyes with Princess Luna, “Why?” “Twilight, many years ago, during the Lunar Rebellions, my sister formed an army,” said Celestia as she gently placed a wing around Luna. “Her army was formed from the outcasts of society, the poor, those that didn’t quite fit in. “ “But one of our soldiers distinguished himself with loyalty and brutality,” continued Luna. “We rewarded him by forging a sword that could match his cunning, his resolve, and his wrath.” The room remained silent for almost a minute before the Princess of the Night spoke again. “The magic that I felt upon entering t’was not a levitation spell, was it Twilight?” Twilight was taken aback by the question. “What do you mean? You wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.” “Correct, we would not. However, the sword that is now a part of you is poisoning your thoughts.” The expression on Twilights face, one of painful regret, confirmed Luna’s suspicions.  “Your first instinct, upon the apparent invasion of your home would normally push you to run or hide. You instead prepared to attack the invaders.” The Princess of Magic looked down at her hooves. “I’m sorry.” Twilight whispered, only barely audible. Luna shook her head, “Please, do not be. You recognized what you were doing and stopped yourself. It is my place to be sorry for I hath placed you in this terrible situation, but thou hath been able to control thyself remarkable well.” Twilight spoke up again, “What your saying is that besides the voice in my head, I will naturally be more aggressive and violent.” “We would expect so, but-” “And that, if I wasn’t careful, I might hurt somepony?” “Yes, but you must-” Twilight stood up and began charging energy through her horn, “Thank you Celestia for all your teaching, and Luna, for your friendship and counseling. Please tell my friends and family that I love them very much.” With a flash, Twilight Sparkle was gone, leaving the two rulers staring at empty space. Luna looked to Celestia with deep concern in her eyes, “We must find her. Might she not hurt herself?” Celestia let out a sigh, “No. Not badly at least, she doesn’t know how. I taught her that there are ways that alicorns can die, but she does not know any of them. She will just lock herself up where she thinks no one will look.” Luna nodded, much more relieved but still sad. “So, we should start looking for her then!” “Not yet. Give her some time to cool off, then I will go get her.” Luna gave her sister a puzzled look. “My faithful student is not that imaginative when it comes to hiding places.” Twilight reappeared inside of a dark room. She quickly walked over into one of the corners, and in a swift motion with her horn brought a great slab of ice up and completely encased herself within. Now the only pony that will have to get hurt is me. Twilight thought to herself as she beckoned for the eternal hibernation that she hoped would consume her.