Piper shivered as a particularly cold breeze grazed the top of his ears. He pulled the hood of his jacket over his head, effectively shutting out the cold wind. In the same motion, he took the opportunity to wipe some of the snowflakes that had gathered on the glass of his goggles before it became too much to see through.

Despite the relatively weak breeze, the snowfall was heavy and dense, making it hard to see properly through the haze of white. He squinted, but couldn’t see too far ahead. He shivered again, his legs tensed up from the cold.

Even though he’d been in Equestria for many years, he doubted he’d ever get used to the biting winds, and he often found himself longing to be back in his homeland.

A loud groan pushed itself out of his throat, and he muttered a few curses in his native tongue as he peered deeper into the wall of falling snow. He’d never been a patient stallion, and fewer things made him more frustrated than waiting.

“Spencer!” He called into the howling wind. “Spencer, come back!”

He knew that he would get annoyed rather quickly when he was chosen to stand guard for the rest of his group, but the fact that Spencer had taken off into the mist made it all the more unbearable.

The waiting, he could handle if he just pushed himself a bit, but seeing his furry little friend fly away into the unknown turned the annoying waiting into a much more tense situation, and a growing worry slowly clouded his mind.

“Spencer!”

“What are you on about, Zanzib?” A voice echoed from behind him. “Did the cold finally drive you nuts?”

Piper took a look over his shoulder spotted the growing silhouette of a pony in the snow. Even though he couldn’t make out any features, he couldn’t mistake the approaching figure.

“Rogue…” He said when the pony came closer. “I’ve told you not to call me that. That name doesn’t belong to me anymore.”

“I’m just teasing you, stupid.” Rogue answered, coming up next to him.

Unlike Piper, who only wore a thick hoodie and vest along with several pouches and bags, the mare next to him wore simple yet effective armor, consisting of a layered leather cuirass covering her chest and stomach, covered in cuts and bruises, scars from battles in the past. A collar shot up from the cuirass and covered about half of her neck, and a thin slit in the leather lined up perfectly with an old scar on the side of her throat. Rusted old chainmail ran down her forelegs like sleeves. The rings sang a quiet song in the wind.

“The little bugger took off again, huh?” She asked. “One day he won’t come back, you know.”

“Spencer always comes back.” Piper said with bluntly. “He wouldn’t leave me.”

“And yet here you stand…” Rogue said, tilting her head towards him, giving him a sly grin. “Alone. No Spencer. Just a lonely Zebra. And little old me.”

“He’ll be back any minute now, you’ll see.” Piper answered, and tried his best to ignore her. She always behaved that way around him, but he couldn’t understand why. She never made fun of the other Stalkers the way she did with him. Piper wondered if he’d ever be able to understand her.

Then finally, he caught sight of a tiny speck of pure blue in the fog of white, and breathed a sigh of relief as it came closer and closer by the second. Little Spencer finally emerged from the blizzard, his paper-thin wings working intensely to keep the tiny Parasprite up.

No more than a second later, Spencer darted forward towards Piper, and quickly snuck into his hood and buried himself in Piper’s mane.

“What’s gotten into you, Spence?” He said with low voice. “Did something scare you?”

Spencer made not a sound or movement, and despite Piper’s attempts to get him to come out, the Parasprite refused to budge.

“He’ll probably eat you someday.” Rogue said with a smirk. “That’s what Parasprites do, after all.”

“Oi! Shut it, Rogue.” Piper said. “Did you want anything at all, besides just mocking me?”

“Mock you? Dear Zanzib, I’m offended. I wouldn’t dream of ever mocking you and your little fuzz ball.” Rogue answered, putting on her most hurt tone. Faked, of course. “I just thought you would love my company.”

Piper gave her a long look.

“Oh, fine. Fang sent me up, said I should tell you that they’ll be done in a half hour or so. They’ve already finished placing all the dynamite, but Windlass took a tumble and sprained her leg.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Piper asked, more to himself than Rogue. “She always finds new ways to fall over and hurt herself. Such a klutz.”

“She is not!” Rogue said. “She’s just… um… endearing?”

“Klutz.”

Rogue sighed. “Anyway, they’ll be ready to leave soon, I think. I’m sure Topaz will be pleased, these Devils built their nest a little too close to her hospital. I hope nopony has stumbled upon it since we found it.”

“I’m just longing for a warm bed and food.” Piper said. “And Topaz has both.”

“Is that really all you’re longing for?” Rogue asked, letting her sly smile slowly return. “Sure you’re not just missing Topaz herself? In a warm bed?”

Piper sighed and rolled his eyes at her, but said nothing. The smirk on Rogue’s face stayed on for a good while, just like her big, blue eyes, staring at him. It wasn’t too uncommon, her staring; sometimes, she could go for a good fifteen minutes until she stopped, and at times like those, Piper often contemplated if she was dropped on her head as a foal. Multiple times.

“Go.” Piper said when she finally stopped her staring session. “The others could probably use your help, and you’ve stayed here for too long.”

“As you wish, little Zanzib.” Rogue said and trotted away into the mist.

“It’s Piper!” He yelled after her, but she was already gone.

The following half hour, Piper spent the time by trying to coax Spencer out of his hiding place, but to no use. Whatever the little thing had seen out in the mist of snow, it must’ve terrified him. Nothing made him come out, not even the lullabies from Piper’s homeland that the Parasprite loved dearly.

After a while, the sound of voices reached his ears, and guessing it was the rest of the group returning, he hurried back to meet up with them. Rogue was the first one he saw, then Fang in his signature beige, hooded jacket. Windlass came after them, limping slightly, her pink mane and black blowing across her face. She’d been awfully quiet and worried the past few weeks, especially after they left The Heart.

Their journey up to Manehattan had taken a few days, and she had hardly spoken a word on the way, and refused to tell anypony why she was so worried. Piper guessed they would find out some time in the future, and that whatever it was, it was best to deal with it when they could.

Despite his attempts to figure out what was wrong with her, he couldn’t settle on any conclusion of his own. The only thing he could come up with was that it had started about a week after that Crescent-pony left with his team of Stalkers. They hadn’t been heard from for a while, but it wasn’t too uncommon for groups to be out for extended periods of time, and so he thought nothing more of it.

“Piper!” Fang exclaimed when he caught sight of him. “I was just about to go and get you. Is everything alright?”

“Yes, it’s fine.” Piper answered. “Everything’s been calm and quiet up here. What about you lot?”

“We’ve torched most of the webs, and the dynamite has been placed. Lucky for us, these particular Devils ain’t too clever, only made one way in or out of the place. Saves us the time and trouble of blowing up any more of them.”

“You sure about that?” Piper asked. “Did you check everywhere?”

“Well, we did find another way out… Or probably in.” Fang responded. “A hole in the ceiling, leading up to the building above. The floor had caved in for some reason. Maybe the wood was old and just crumbled in on itself.”

“Or maybe somepony fell through it.” Piper said bluntly.

“Possibly. I didn’t see any fresh bodies, though. Just withered remains. If somepony did fall into the nest, it was either a very long time ago, or they somehow made it out alive. Either way, we covered it up as best we could.”

A high pitched squeal interrupted him, coming from Windlass as she tripped on her bad leg. Rogue hurried over to help her up.

“… Anyway.” Fang continued. “We had to take out some of those disgusting bugs that got in our way, but after that the others seemed too afraid to attack us. Everything went a lot smoother than I ever thought it would, and if not for Windlass’ little mishap… things would’ve gone completely without a hitch. Just need to set off the dynamite, then we can head back.”

“Odd place to set up a nest, don’t you think?” Piper asked Fang once he was done talking. “They don’t usually come this close to settlements and outposts.”

“They’re getting more bold, for some reason.” Fang said in response. “Or more reckless. Maybe something’s driving them further up north, away from the park.”

Piper shrugged. “Perhaps. If you ask me, that park should be burned to the ground. If the Devils all come from there, imagine what else it could spawn.”

“That’ll have to wait for another time.” Fang said. “Our orders were to wipe out this nest, nothing more. So far the park isn’t posing an actual threat.” He turned away from Piper and started back towards the others. “Let’s just get this over with and head back.”

Piper followed him, and decided to help Rogue with Windlass.

In only a few minutes, Fang had finished laying the fuse of the dynamite, and they all huddled down behind some rubble nearby. He lit the fuse, and the sparkling flame rushed away towards the dark stairwell that led down into the nest.

Somewhere deep down, the dynamite ignited, and the following explosion made the ground beneath their hooves tremble, and the group of Stalkers could all have sworn that they heard distant shrieks coming from the dark underground.

“I hope that’s the last we hear of them.” Rogue said, once everything went quiet.

They emerged from their hiding spot, and found the entrance to the underground tunnels completely demolished, rubble and stone piled up together into an impenetrable wall. Soon it would be buried beneath the snow, and forgotten.

“So, job finished?” Piper asked.

“Job finished.” Fang answered. “Let’s head back. Topaz promised us medical supplies in payment, and I’d really like to get them back to the ponies of The Heart quickly.”

The group headed out once again, and left the buried entrance behind without even so much as a second glance.

In silence they walked, thankful that the ruined streets of the once proud city was calm and quiet for the time being. After some time, Spencer finally dared to come out from inside Piper’s hood, and seemed contempt with hovering next to him as they pushed on.

Spencer had been with him for a couple of years now. During a scavenge run up in Vanhoover, they had stumbled upon a tiny nest of Parasprites, hidden inside a dilapidated boat down by the harbor.

Fang wanted to take them all out, knowing full well what they could do if they where allowed to multiply. Piper refused to be a part of it, but despite it all, Fang burned them all and Piper could do nothing but watch. He was a quiet Zebra, and believed that he had no right to hinder anypony’s free will. So he stood and watched as nothing but ashes remained of the Parasprites.

It was first a few days later that he noticed that the supplies in his saddle bag started to vanish, most of all the food.

Turned out that it was a Parasprite that had survived that was hiding in his gear. Piper didn’t have the heart to reject the little creature, and decided to take care of it in secret for as long as he could.

He tried to train Spencer into eating nothing but regular food, and eventually it worked, but by then his little secret had already been discovered. The Elders of The Heart wanted him to get rid of Spencer immediately, or he would be banished from Ponyville and never be called a Stalker again.

Lucky for him, a Unicorn by the name of Sweetie Belle from town had helped him, and through the use of magic spells and incantations that he couldn’t understand, she managed to alter something within the Parasprite that stopped it from multiplying like it normally would.

Piper and the Parasprite had been nearly inseparable since, and Sweetie Belle had become his close friend.

As they walked, the snow slowly fell harder, making it hard for them to see much at all. It had gone from light snowfall into full-on blizzard, and they picked up their pace to reach the hospital faster.

“I really don’t like the look of this…” Piper said to Rogue, who was trotting to the right of him. “Something feels… off.”

“You’re just being paranoid.” Rogue said bluntly. “It’s just a little snow, it won’t kill you.”

“You never know…” He muttered under his breath.

The longer they walked, the more Piper felt that something was really, really wrong. The feeling had grown and grown, much the way the snowfall seemed to increase as they came closer to the hospital. Spencer hid inside his hood yet again, unable to keep up with the strong winds.

Suddenly, Piper felt his skin crawl as a strange howl traveled through the wind around him.

“Did you hear that?” He called out to Rogue, now forced to raise his voice to be heard over the wind.

“Yeah! What the hell was it?”

Again, the howl rang through the air, this time closer and louder. Piper had never heard anything similar in his life. He was sure of one thing; whatever made that sound was not of this world. It wasn’t natural.

“Nothing good.” Fang said.

“Hey guys!” Rogue called. “We need to slow down, Windlass can’t keep up!”

They did as she said without hesitation, and Piper once again hurried over to help her keep straight.

“How bad is it?” Piper asked. “Do you need to take rest?”

Windlass didn’t answer, but she shook her head slightly. Further questioning got nothing out of her, so Piper decided to just stay quiet and give her his support to walk properly for a while.

Once they were almost at the hospital, Fang hurried away before them, to get a good view of the place, just in case. Piper and Rogue stayed with Windlass, who took the opportunity to sit down and rest her still aching leg.

Just a little while later, Fang came rushing back to them, panting and wheezing.

“Piper, you need to come see this!”

“But, Windlass, she-“ Piper started.

“Now!” Fang yelled, before turning around and hurrying off into the blizzard again.

Piper made sure that Windlass was fine, then stood up and ran after his leader. Even though he couldn’t see him anywhere, it wasn’t too hard to follow his hoof prints in the snow. He rounded a building, and found Fang just in front of him and the hospital a little while away on the opposite side of the street.

The moment he laid his eyes upon it, his blood froze in his veins.

“Oh, no…” He whispered.

Snow rushed through the air and the heavy blizzard raged, the skies a whirlwind of black clouds. From Dust Memorial Hospital Was in the epicenter of it all.

In the whirlwind, Piper could see several dark, ghostly silhouettes circling above the hospital in synch with the wind. The howls they had heard earlier echoed once again, and it was apparent that they came from these creatures in the sky.

“What are those things?” He yelled to Fang.

“… Wendigos.”

“And what the hell is a Wendigo?” Piper asked, but Fang shot him down instantly.

“No time to explain!” He shouted before setting off towards the hospital. “We need to get the ponies out of there, quickly!”

Piper ran after him, but once he came to the shallow stairs leading up to the entrance, he couldn’t help but stop and stare for a few moments. Thick ice covered the upper walls of the hospital, and somehow it moved on its own and descended towards him at an alarming pace.

With his heart stuck in his throat, he rushed through the broken glass doors.

“Topaz!” He yelled. “Anypony?!”

The entrance hall was a total disarray. Fires burned all around him, ponies rushing back and forth in their attempts to put it out. Several bodies littered the floor, one of them with gaping, burnt holes where its eyes should be. Some tried to drag the dead bodies out of the room, while other injured ponies crawled away from the building fires.

“Piper!” A voice suddenly called out. “Piper, is that you?!”

He looked to where the voice came from, and saw a pony running towards him. He didn’t recognize who it was, but the voice had been unmistakably male, although the strange mask covering the pony’s head seemed to distort it a little bit.

“What the hell happened here?!” Piper yelled to the masked pony, not caring who it actually was. Identity of other Stalkers mattered not when lives were at stake.

“I don’t know.” The masked pony answered as he came up to him. “I’ve only been here a few hours, there was this- I don’t know, Crescent said it might be King Dust returned from the dead, and I don’t-“

“Wait, Crescent is here?” Piper asked. “Where is he!?”

“I don’t know, and we don’t have the time to talk about it! Help me get these ponies out of here instead, quickly!”

“What about Topaz, is she okay?”

“I don’t know, a few ponies pulled her out after she was knocked out. I’m sure she’s alright, though, but there’s others that need help!”

Piper looked up quickly, and saw that the highest windows of the hall had already been covered in ice. Time was running out, fast.

He followed the masked pony through the burning room and did his best to help him gather as many ponies as possible and lead them towards the exit. They had no choice but to leave the dead, but some ponies refused to leave their loved ones and tried their hardest to drag their lifeless bodies through the glass doors.

“Hurry! Go!” Fang yelled as he pushed a couple of crying ponies through the room.

The ice now covered half the windows, and the Stalkers worked even more frantically to save as many as possible.

Piper tore himself away from the others, and took off into a doorway on the side of the room to look for Topaz or any other pony that needed help.

Just beyond the doors, he stumbled upon the body of a Pegasus stallion, a very odd one with rainbow mane and deformed wings. He leaned down and put his ear to his chest and heard the faintest heartbeat still ticking.

He tried to wake the Pegasus up, but nothing seemed to help, no matter how much he pushed the stallion didn’t move. Piper had no choice but to leave him, and hurried down the hallway instead, taking care to look and yell into every room he passed.

Eventually, the zebra looked into a room, and found two ponies inside. He rushed inside and told them to hurry out of there before it was too late, but for some reason they refused to budge.

They sat around a bad on the opposite side of the room, and when he came closer, Piper saw that someone was resting in it, covered by blankets.

“We can’t just leave her…” One of the ponies said. “Can we take her with us?”

“There’s no time.” Piper answered. “Just get out of here, head for the entrance and get out.”

“But-“

“No buts.” Piper said quickly. “Run, now-“

He became quiet when he approached the bed, and saw the pony in it. The bright, blonde mane and orange fur was impossible to mistake.

“… Topaz.” He whispered without taking his eyes off of her. “Is she…?”

“She won’t wake up.” One of the ponies said. “She hit her head pretty hard and now… I think she’s comatose.”

“But she’s alive, right?” Piper asked.

“Barely. You know her?”

He sat down next to the bed and lowered his head. She looked like she was just sleeping, and he wanted her to remain that way in his memory. Peaceful.

“Get out of here.” Piper whispered. “I’ll look after her. Just go, please.”

They didn’t protest, and instead hurried out of the room and left Piper all alone with Topaz. He looked at her through eyes that slowly felt more and more welled up, but no tears came to him. He wanted to cry, but nothing came.

“I’m so sorry, Topaz….”

Piper raised his hoof up on the bed and placed it on her leg. She was still warm. When he looked to the side, he saw that the ice covered the window right next to him. The first floor. It had reached the first floor. He stifled a broken wail, and looked back at the mare before him.

Carefully, he stroked her leg, hoping that wherever she was, she would feel it and get some sort of comfort from it.

In the corner of his eyes, he saw something move across the floor towards him. He looked over, and saw the ice from outside slowly covering the cold floor. It crept closer and closer to him and the bed.

With a final sigh that tore up into a sob, he reached over Topaz, and with great care, planted a tender kiss on her forehead.

He felt the coolness from the ice approaching, and removed himself from the bed quickly. He hurried towards the door, his eyes fixed on it and it alone. He didn’t dare to look back, for fear of seeing the ice covering the bed.

Still, right before he left he couldn’t contain himself, and threw a last glance on the mare he so admired. The ice had crawled up the bedframe and was coming up on the blankets without slowing down.

Piper looked away, and hurried out of the room and into the corridor, and then sat off towards the entrance.

When he once again passed the Pegasus, he had been completely encased in ice, and Piper could do nothing to help him. He could hear the Wendigos howling above the hospital again, and hurried into the entrance hall.

As he did, the masked pony instantly called out to him, and Piper made his way towards him. He helped him hoist up a pony from the floor, a mare that was completely black and wearing a trench coat. It had been ripped open in several places around her stomach.

Piper and the other Stalker rushed towards the exit as the ice came closer and closer, creeping across the floor like a cold shadow. It extinguished all the flames it touched, and seemed to almost race them to the way out.

Time seemed to slow down, and Piper could suddenly feel every inch if his body, feel every drop of blood pump through his veins. Spencer flew ahead, and he could see every little flap of his tiny wings. The ice had made his way across half of the doors, leaving only a small gap open.

In just the nick of time, Piper threw himself forwards and tumbled out of the small opening in the steadily growing ice. The other Stalker came right after him, and they both fell over as the weight of the mare became too much for them.

Somepony helped Piper up, and even though he wasn’t paying much attention to who it was, he understood that it was Rogue, due to the metallic ringing of her chainmail.

He looked back to the doors, just in time to see the ice completely cover the entrance, trapping anyone still inside.

The masked pony stood up as well, and managed to remove the mask from his face. Piper instantly recognized the young Stalker that had been hiding underneath.

“Bucket?” He asked.

“Yeah.” Bucket answered, panting heavily. “Are you alright?”

Piper nodded, and then turned his gaze up. Bucket followed his example, and caught his first sight of the ghostly apparitions circling the skies.

“Oh my-“ He stopped himself. “Are those-?”

“Yes. Wendigos.” Piper said. “What are they, anyway?”

“Spirits.” Bucket answered, his voice low and unsteady. “My mother told me about them. They feed on hatred and anger, and conjure up snow and ice wherever they go…”

“That would mean… Could they be the cause of this terrible winter?”

Bucket turned to him with a serious look on his face. It alone was enough to answer his question.

Another blood freezing howl rang out across the world, making everypony hearing it tremble in fear.

Silence then fell upon them all, as the Wendigos vanished into thin air.