Chapter 1

It began on a dull Sunday in November. Autumn was almost over, and the hidden afternoon sun barely managed to heat up the country. Along with the stiff breeze that blew over the frozen area, the lack of warming sunlight kept the temperatures at frosty 41 degrees.

A shiver ran through her body as her hooves touched the cold concrete of the platform and a gust of icy wind blew into her face.

She let her glance wander over the deserted station. “Where is he?”

With growing confusion, she scanned the place once again. “Really, where is he? He said we’d meet at noon, why is he late?” she asked herself, the frosty air causing puffs of warm air to rise in front of her.

Another gust of wind swiped her fur as the train behind departed, leaving the small station behind. Casting a wistful look over her shoulder, she watched her only chance to return to Ponyville anytime soon drive off.

Her teeth began to chatter as she turned her head back towards the platform. Most of the few ponies that had arrived with her had already left the station; safe for a single senior that was busy sweeping up the fallen leaves of a nearby trees.

She rubbed her freezing hooves against each other, trying to protect them from the merciless cold. “Come on, BBBFF, where are you?” she whispered breathlessly, “You can’t let me down now!”

She waited for another minute, then cast a desperate glance at the deserted platform in front of her, and concluded that her partner had stood her up. Letting out an angry snort, she then turned around and headed towards the exit of the small station.

Feeling her anger grow, she kicked up some snow and growled, “What’s wrong with him? He’s never bailed on me before!” She stopped for a moment, then looked to the ground and huffed, “Though I can imagine what has happened: there’s probably been an ‘important’ captain of the guard-thing that had to be done first!”

Slowly, her head sunk and she sighed, feeling how a single tear shot into her eyes. It froze before she could blink the moisture away. “More important than picking up his little sister in time…”

She was just about to reach the small exit door when she heard it; that familiar voice she had known ever since early foalhood. “Twily!” it sounded throughout the station, involuntarily sending a shiver of happiness through her spine.

Twilight Sparkle spun around, her muscles aching due to the frosty temperatures. There he was; facing her with an embarrassed smile, he had stepped through the opposite entrance of the station and now trotted towards her. Shining Armor, her big brother, did not bail on her. It didn't soften the anger though.

His snow-white fur and blue mane were slightly unkempt by the severe wind blowing over the platform. His cerulean eyes gave her an apologizing look as he made his way across the platform and towards her.

She frowned at him, but said nothing.

“Sorry I’m late!” He shouted over the platform, “I wanted to leave earlier, but Cadence needed my help with something. Didn’t mean to stand you up.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, yet still remained silent.

Her brother approached her and gently rubbed his muzzle against her side, saying, “Hey, don’t you begin to pout now. Do you want to end our little trip before it’s even begun?”

The thought of their imminent excursion brightened her mood considerably and she looked up, facing her brother and saying, “No. No, of course not.” She looked to the side slightly embarrassed, “Sorry if I was a little huffy.”

Shining Armor gave her a warm smile, saying: “It’s fine. I was late after all.” Turning away from her and facing the exit, he added, “Now, I think we should get a move on. The wind is freshening steadily and we want to arrive before sunset, don’t we?”

As if by command, the icy wind made Twilight’s skin creep and she followed her brother, saying, “Of course, I’m right behind you.”

During the walk to the exit, a cloud of awkward silence seemed to hover above them, until Shining Armor finally started a conversation. “So … how was your trip? Quite long, I guess.” He asked over his shoulder with a light chuckle in his voice.

With a weak smile, Twilight replied, “Yeah, I’m on my hooves for quite a while now. … Couldn’t really sleep on the way here.” she added hesitantly.

“So you’re just as excited as me?” her brother asked eagerly.

Making an effort to return the smile, Twilight turned her head back, looking at the abandoned dirt road that appeared in front of them. “Of course I am.” she said, “If it turns out that Celestia was right and there are signs of Queen Chrysalis’ existence to be found in the Crystal Mountains, what does that mean for us? What does that mean for Equestria? Would she try to start another attack? Would we be prepared?”

Doing his best to hide his embarrassment, Shining Armor slowly nodded and turned his head away, muttering, “Yeah … that’s bugged me too. I mean … a return of Chrysalis … that would be horrible.”

Twilight couldn’t hold back a smile. Certainly, she knew that they wouldn’t find any signs of the presumed dead queen of the changelings. Even if she would have survived her literal expulsion, Twilight was sure that the Crystal Mountains were one of the last places she would go. After all, Chrysalis would most likely aim at rebuilding her empire and taking revenge on Twilight and her friends. An eternal ice desert certainly wasn’t the best place to pursue that kind of goal.

No, Twilight knew the reason why she had traveled to the Crystal Empire, even though Princess Celestia had never told her directly, the signs had been more than obvious.

Ever since her coronation and following move to Canterlot, Twilight hardly ever had time for her private life. Her daily routine was littered with ‘Princess-training’ -as Celestia tended to call it-, lessons in politics and economy, and of course –what Twilight loved the most of all- formal soirées. She had to spend entire evenings just smiling, looking magnificent, and, well, being a proper Princess. Always knowing that the smallest semblance of misconduct would cast a poor light on not only her and Celestia, but on all of Equestria. Needless to say, Twilight was overwhelmed.

However, Princess Celestia seemed to have noticed that the drastic change of lifestyle had strained her student – more than what was good for her.

Of course, she couldn’t just have sent the new Princess on vacation – Princesses never took a vacation, and it would have been abhorrent to Twilight’s strict schedule to give her some unfounded time off.

But Celestia had a plan, for she knew another pony whose job made it hard for him to stay in touch with the ones he loved. Somepony who was closer to Twilight than anypony else.

So she had approached the newest Princess and sent her to the Crystal Empire, telling her to meet with Shining Armor and follow up rumors about a possible hideout of Queen Chrysalis.

However, both of them knew what Celestia had intended with sending them on this mission: she wanted them to take some time out; to spend some time as brother and sister, not as Princess and captain of the royal guard.

And so it happened that Twilight caught her big brother off guard as she flung her foreleg around his neck. “But you can’t believe how glad I am to finally spend some time with my BBBFF.” she whispered into his ear with tears of happiness in her eyes.

Shining Armor, slowly understanding what was going on, acknowledged the hug, and said, “The same goes for me, Twily. It’s been too long since we did something together. Just the two of us.”

“Too right!” Twilight approved, enjoying the touch of her brother’s soft fur on her ear.

“And even if we don’t find something, the trip was definitely worthwhile.” Shining Armor added with a slight cackle in his voice.

Twilight smirked, “Yeah, if we don’t find something!”

Noticing that his sister was slightly shivering from the cold, Shining Armor said, “Are you cold?” he pointed a hoof at a small saddlebag on his back, “I’ve got an overcoat with me.”

Twilight, making an effort to hide her chattering teeth, ended the embrace with her brother and backed off. “No thank you. It’ll be fine if we keep moving.” She said, tilting her head into the direction of the distant mountains, “We want to arrive before sunset, don’t we?”

Her brother nodded. “Of course, let’s get going then.”

A few moments after the two ponies had continued making their way to the foot of the mountain, Shining Armor turned his head towards Twilight and asked, “So, how’s the whole … princess-thing going so far? Are you getting along?”

She couldn’t hold back a dry smirk: she had heard that question so many times in the time since her coronation, she’d already worked out a standard-answer: “It is very nice. Hard to get used to, but definitely a great honor.” She would have said to every other pony asking her about it.

However, her brother got to hear her real opinion. “It’s horrible!” she said with a severe lack of enthusiasm

Shining Armor gave her a staggered look, but remained silent.

“Don’t get me wrong!” she quickly added, “It’s a great honor to be a Princess, and I am especially honored to be alongside Celestia, but…” she sighed, “I miss my life as a unicorn! Those times when I was just Twilight, the normal, ordinary student, not Princess Twilight Sparkle, the future co-ruler of Equestria!”

“Twilight, you-“

“I mean, it’s just so…” she flourished her hoof, trying to find the words to express her feelings, “It’s just so much at once! The world as I know it has been turned upside down basically overnight!”

“Twily-“

“Everything has become so complicated! Do you know how much pressure comes with being a Princess!?” she asked her brother with widened eyes, “You have to be dressed up to the nines all day, have to smile every time other ponies show up, have to consider everything you do twice…” she sighed deeply, “I miss my easy life.”

“Sis!”

“I mean, all that wouldn’t be so bad if I would have had some time to accommodate myself to it! To get used to it step by step! But no, I just got plunged in at the deep end! I was-“

Her brother gently placed a hoof on her mouth. “You have to stop being so stressed, little sister.” He said softly, “Yes, there has been a lot of change in your life within a short period of time; yes, you have been thrown in at the deep end, but that’s something everypony experiences in his or her life. The world changes - sometimes quicker, sometimes slower, but it changes steadily. And sometimes it just moves faster than you. Sometimes, it just presents you with a cruel ultimatum, and expects you to deal with it.”

Shining Armors sudden revelation into philosophy kept Twilight quiet more than his hoof.

“But the essential thing is that you don’t let it throw you off the track!” Shining Armor assured her, “Even if it’s caught you off-guard, you can’t allow it to get you down. It may seem hard now, but trust me, as soon as you get used to it, as soon as you’ve caught up with the course of time, it’s going to be a lot easier!”

Staring at her brother with her mouth hanging open, Twilight said, “…uhh...wow.”

Shining Armor leaned forward and rubbed his muzzle against hers, saying: “Don’t worry, sis. It’s gonna be alright.”

Slowly raising his head and looking at the road ahead of them, he added, “But we should really carry on now. The sun is lowering already.”

With a quick shake of her head, Twilight loosened herself from her stiffness and said, “Yeah. Yeah, we should move on. You’ve got the map, right?”

Getting under way, her brother pointed toward his saddlebag and said, “Overcoat, map and rations; it’s all in here!”

“Alright then.” Twilight said, noticing that an anticipative grin formed on her face, “Then let the adventure begin!”

She didn’t know how long they had been walking already - seven, eight hours at least. The sun had set an eternity ago, at about the same time when they had crossed the snow line.

The ascent to the first mountain could only be described with the word ‘torture’. Twilight certainly wasn’t the pony to whine about trifles like aching legs or hurting hooves, but she definitely had a hard time keeping her mouth shut as the seemingly endless ascent ahead of her and the pain-enduing rocks underneath her hooves had gotten attended by a stiff, icy breeze and rotten-cold snowflakes landing on her unprotected fur.

Shining Armor, who didn’t seem to be affected by the bone-chilling cold - or was good at hiding it - had offered her his overcoat several times already, but she had always declined. As Celestia had told her, being a Princess meant to be prepared - or to deal with the consequences of one’s carelessness.

She had forgotten to bring a coat.

Of course, it had grinded on her nerves; she had known that she would have been better off with the coat, but accepting the desired garment would have meant to ignore one of the most important lessons Celestia had taught her, and she couldn’t stand to disappoint her beloved mentor.

So she had clenched her teeth and continued her journey, following her brother on their seemingly endless ascent to the spot Celestia had made out for them.

In the meantime, the wind had grown from a stiff breeze to a howling storm, blowing loads of snow into her face and feeling like an icy knife stabbing at her body over and over again. She didn’t make an effort to hide her chattering teeth anymore; the omnipresent wind whipped loud enough to muffle every noise coming from her.

And even if her brother would have heard her chattering, what could he have done about it? He couldn’t magically shut the storm off, and the overcoat in his saddlebag would have kept Twilight warm for no more than ten minutes at most.

More and more she found herself asking the reason why Celestia had chosen exactly that place for her and her brother to follow up on rumors. Theoretically, Chrysalis could have been hiding at every thinkable place; there were more than enough spots in Equestria that could serve as hideouts – places that were more comfortable to explore than an icy summit.

But she had always put those thoughts off: She should be grateful that Celestia had charged her with that ‘mission’ in the first place; asking the implications decisions would have been more than rude.

Still, by then, at least ten hours after their departure, she felt her anger grow with every step she took. She couldn’t exactly define it though: it was not the kind of anger directed at somepony or something certain. It was just anger - anger at herself for forgetting an overcoat, anger at the merciless snowstorm around them, anger at the exhausting and unnecessarily long ascent, anger at the deep snow for freezing her hooves off, anger at the dark for taking her sight, anger at Celestia for sending them into that icy hell, anger at her brother for walking all the time; for not finally saying that they had arrived.

That thought made her hesitate and remember something: they had planned to be at their first destination before sunset. That was several hours ago! Twilight clenched her teeth and sped up, quickly catching up with the barely visible silhouette of her brother.

“Shouldn’t we be there already!?” she shouted over the deafening howl of the wind.

“What!?” he yelled back.

“SHOULDN’T WE HAVE ARRIVED HOURS AGO!?” Twilight shouted with all of her remaining power.

Her brother hesitated for a second, then nervously bit his under lip and looked to the side.

That could only mean one thing. “You do know where we are, right?” she asked, her voice slightly quavering, “RIGHT!?”

Shining Armor pulled a soaked piece of paper out of his drenched saddlebag and tried to read from the blurred inkstains on it. “Well, we are … right here!” he said, pointing a hoof at the map. It went straight through.

“Shit.”

“YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHERE WE ARE!?” Twilight yelled at him.

Her brother reluctantly shook his head.

Taking a look around, she realized the quandary they were in. Her shivering grew stronger, though not because of the cold. “No. No, no, no! That’s not good!” she mumbled with growing despair, “We’re in the middle of nowhere, caught in a blizzard, and have hardly any provisions with us! That’s not good! That is not good!”

“Keep calm, Twily! We’ll just go back where we came from.” Shining Armor said and turned around, “No problem at all. Just let me go ahead and I-“

She held him back with one hoof, harshly cutting him off: “No, you are not going ahead! Because you have already brought us here!” she snarled at him and turned around, “I’ll go ahead.”

“Be careful, Twilight!” her brother warned her, “You don’t know how thick the snow is; there could be crevasses everywhere!”

“Yeah yeah.” She said, slowly disappearing in the nightly snowstorm, “Crevasses – in a solid mountain. Good one.”

“Actually, we should be moving on one of the many glaciers at the moment!” Shining Armor shouted with growing concern and got under way, running after his sister, “It’s dangerous to walk alone!”

“Well,” Twilight shouted over her shoulder, “if we should be moving on a glacier according to your great map, I’m sure I have nothing to feeeeeeeeaaaAAAAHHH-“

“Twily!” Shining Armor sprinted over the thick layer of snow, searching the seemingly impenetrable darkness for his sister, “Twilight where are you!?”

“D-down here.” The muffled answer came after a few seconds, echoing from somewhere in front of his hooves.

He lit his horn, using the light to search the ground.

His jaw dropped. There, right in front of his hooves, was a hole as big as a full-grown stallion and so deep he couldn’t see the end.

“Twilight!” he yelled, leaning his head forward and searching the hole for signs of the purple mare.

“I’m here!” The hesitant answer came from the bottom the crevice; a weak, purple light shimmered through the ice, “I … I think I’m stuck!”

“No! No, this can’t be true!” Shining Armor shouted with growing despair, “Why didn’t you listen to me!? I said it was dangerous!” he yelled down the hole.

“I know what you said! I … I simply overreacted, alright? Just … just help me find a way out!”

Shining Armor, well-knowing that there was no other way out than back to the top, suppressed a curse and shouted, “A-alright! I’ll call help! Just … hang in there, sis!”

"What else would I do!?” Twilight replied, “Just hurry up, please! It’s getting cold down here!”

“Of course! I’ll be back in a second!” he ensured her and ran off, leaving Twilight alone in the crevasse.

A shiver ran through her spine as the still falling snow landed on her head. Her body was locked between two walls of ice that formed a nearly perfect V. Her rear legs and wings were completely immobilized, her body and front legs could only be moved by a few inches.

The chattering of her teeth intensified. Burning pain started to come from the spots where her body touched the massive ice walls.

In a desperate attempt to prevent herself from becoming hypothermic, she rubbed her front hooves against each other, additionally blowing her pained breath against them.

“S-s-stupid!” she panted, breathless from the cold air entering her lungs, “S-so stupid! I sh-should have s-s-stayed with him! S-s-stupid me!”

With horror, she realized that the piercing cold around her stuck abdomen slowly vanished, making way for a feeling of total numbness.

“No! No!” she squealed, tensing her muscles in an attempt to squirm against the unyielding ice around her body, “Don’t- Don’t freeze!”

But she quickly ended her struggle against the omnipresent ice, well-knowing that it would be futile; she wouldn’t manage to break the ice just by the power of her legs, and wasting her precious energy on attempting the impossible would be sheer suicide.

No, she knew all she could do was wait; wait for her brother to come back and save her, save her from a misery she’d caused all by herself.

Feeling the freezing numbness slowly crawl up her body, she held, realizing the issue: “If I wouldn’t have walked away; if I wouldn’t have let my anger act for me, I wouldn’t be here now.”

Her shoulders dropped; the snow that had collected on her head began to burn like fire. "I … I let my emotions get the better of me. I did exactly what a Princess should never do!”

The numbness reached her chest; she felt her body going limp and her eyelids getting heavier with every second.

“I-I’m a bad princess. Heck, I … I don’t even have the right to call myself ‘Princess’ anymore! A real princess would have never allowed her emotions to cause such trouble! A real princess would have kept a cool head and found a way out of that dilemma!”

Her extreme undercooling and exhaustion caused her neck to go limp; her head smashed against the opposite wall with a dull thud. She hardly felt the pain though.

“So I guess that’s what I deserve. I die because of my own shortsightedness. I freeze in a bloody crevasse. … Maybe … maybe it’s the best for everypony. Who would like somepony who can’t even take care of herself to rule over an entire country?”

Her eyelids began to lower. “I just hope … Shining Armor … Princess Celestia … my friends … I hope they won’t mourn me.”

Finally, her eyes closed; the icy wall of the crevice disappeared and made way for omnipresent darkness.

“There’s no reason to mourn a failure.”