Wave sighed dramatically. "What kind of siren am I? Not even remembering what a siren can do. That's what I get for spending this long just relying on the tricks of the gods. Fine tricks they are, sure, but I can't use them without temple robbers. No temple, no temple robbers, no gifts. And here I am, a few thousand years out of date." She flopped against Tom. "Shall we find that friend of yours?"

“Least this is still working perfectly fine,” Tom remarked, gently tapping her head. “People, er, humans at least, tend to go a bit crazy after being isolated for awhile. You’ve got your mind, and it’s a very nice one that I’ve seen so far, Wave, and what you’ve forgotten can always be relearned… you’ve got time, yeah? You’ve probably forgotten more than I’ve learned, you know?” he asked, slowly starting to get up. “And should we go look for him? I don’t know the first thing about tracking in the snow. With it being frozen water, can you use any of your abilities to track him that way?”

She shook her head. "Not that I know of? But we have two heads, and the snow's not looking as bad as it did before. We really should find him, shadow stuff or not. That's what friends are for, right?" She flashed her sharp teeth. "Don't tell him, but you're a better friend."

Grinning, he stretched before kneeling down to lift her up, kissing her for a moment. “Yeah, I’m worried about him and that shadow stuff, but it’s no reason to just stop caring about him. Especially as the only other human here that I know about, even if I’ve got a bit less of that going on now.” Pausing at the cave’s exit, he shivered a bit from the chill seeping in. “Okay, shall we, Wave?”

Eric gripped the hat tightly in his hand as he followed Poppy into the snow, glancing back at the cave entrance once before resolving himself completely to his task. Of course, with the former shadow wolf doing the hard work, his mind had plenty of time to wander, plaguing him with hypothetical scenarios of rejection and pain when he finally did talk to the pony in question. But with a glance at his canine companion he reminded himself that sometimes scary things are worth facing. And also that his sense of fear was totally upside down.

The little doggy tried his best to follow scents through the storm, and was surprisingly making some progress through the blizzard, but puppy fur only went so far, and he started to look quite chilly a few minutes out. The little thing shivered with every little paw it set down in the unrelenting snow cover, until it suddenly vanished, sinking right through the snow into something beneath.

Eric was distracted a moment, considering his options for helping the poor puppy, when his thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the disappearance of their subject. Acting without forethought, he dove to his knees, digging into the snow where Poppy had disappeared. His hand quickly punched through the snow, finding a yawning emptiness just a foot into it. The snow began to crumble and fall, revealing a larger crevice that Poppy had apparently fallen into.

"Poppy!" he yelled into the crevice, looking for any way to descend safely, as well as any sign of the lost puppy. But there was only darkness in the hole. How far had the dog fallen? It was hard to tell. Sheer edges meant the poor thing could have slid quite some distance.

A sudden thought coming to him, Eric called out Lost Chance's name loudly as well, before securing her hat in his backpack. Was it time for more Science? Of course it was. He willed his magic into a pair of wings, giving them a few experimental movements before sliding down into the pit, trying to slow and control his descent. Insane ideas, don't fail me now!

This is your fault, you realize, came the voice from within. If he had the power he started with, he would not have failed in such a pathetic fashion. You took it, that makes it your responsibility.

Despite the words, his slitted eyes could pierce the dark, the bright contrail of dark magic becoming plainly visible as he channeled the force. There was so much snow and ledges, where could that dog have landed?

I know. That’s why I am going after her, not leaving her to her fate. He called out again, alternating between the names as he descended, looking around with increasing desperation. Angling over to land on a nearby ledge, he thought more. Fear. The darkness is associated with fear. Can I sense it? he asked himself, before trying to do just that.

Sensing out into the darkness, there was something, pulling, warm, and seductive. Something was afraid, and it sent an illicit thrill through his spine to feel it, as if it powered him to be in its presence and savor it.

Eric sighed to himself. That delicious sensation... he was going to have to fight against the urge to get addicted to it. Poppy's former behavior came into new focus. But first, there was someone afraid in the dark. He kept his mind on the sensation, navigating toward it cautiously. He followed it down about two hundred feet to find the fallen form of Poppy, curled up against the wall. She didn't look to be in good shape, with one paw clearly bent in the wrong way.

"Oh, Poppy..." he said, taking off his shirt and wrapping it around the puppy's form, picking her up and hugging her to him gently, keeping her broken paw on the outside. Can dark magic heal? That seems... out of character for it...

It can improve and make better. Your dog is too weak for this land, as it has clearly demonstrated to you. If you didn't like it before, make a new form for it, that isn't so weak or unruly. The voice sounded mildly impatient as it spoke.

Indecision plagued Eric as he looked around for any other sources of fear. Poppy clearly wasn’t able to handle dark power responsibly, and he questioned his ability to make her do so, let alone handle it himself. But he also had no access to veterinarians at the moment. Still...if he could find Lost Chance the expedition would have been worth the cost.

Poppy did little but give a little whimper. Likely in shock, the puppy remained largely where she was placed, covering or not. The faint scent of blood was in the air from where its fall had battered its little body around.

Eric refocused on Poppy. With no sign of the missing mare, he had to deal with what he had before him. So he focused on her namesake: a ninja wolf, indistinct from other wolves aside from her loyalty to her master, and her ninja skills. Dark magic already proven quite capable of teleportation, he hoped to infuse that power into her, along with the fictional wolf’s ability to recover from injuries with just a little rest. "I need you to be a good dog, Poppy. For great justice!"

Shadow wrapped around the puppy, who let out a little yelp before it was covered in the stuff and became lost to sight. The shadow flowed in bands of black, purple, and sinister green as the cloud roiled and almost foamed. The energy required began to drain at Eric's wings, and forced him into a landing beside the wall as whatever happened… happened.

Eric slumped against the wall, letting all other magic fade as he focused on his work. "You better not make me regret this, Poppy."

A canine shape poked from the cloud, followed by the rest of a sleekly-formed canine. It was wreathed in the colors of shadow magic until it let out a loud howl, the energy falling away and causing the snow to fall from above in a miniature avalanche that thankfully didn't knock them free of their ledge. Despite the energy no longer flowing through Eric, his eyes still shone with angry purple trails and deep green pupils, slit like that of a cat or a bat.

"It's a good look for you, now let's see how well it worked. Go, Poppy!" He said. Pointing toward a higher ledge and mentally ordering her to teleport up to it.

She stopped to lick Eric's face, apparently having not forgotten their short-lived but sincere bond. She looked up towards the ledge then vanished in a flash of darkness. Shadow flowed quickly to the higher ledge before reforming into the form of the canine. She looked down at her master and barked at him. Look at me, I'm good at this, or so it seemed to say.

"Now to see if I'm any good at it myself, " Eric commented before attempting to teleport to her side. It was an odd sensation, not having a body. Being nothing but wisps of shadows with those large baleful eyes that stared out from the mass. He flowed quickly and easily where he wanted to go, though his movement quickly slowed down when he approached the light of the outside world.

"Come, Poppy. We should rejoin Tom and Wave. Lost is lost to us, for now. We tried, though. At least we tried." With those words he started the trek back to the surface in earnest. To those around Eric, all they heard was 'Cooome… Lost...' The dog seemed to get the gist of things well enough, and blinked from platform to platform towards the surface.

Reaching the surface, he shaded his eyes from the light of day as he looked for signs of his passing, or the cave where his companions were last seen. Even returned to his human form, the touches of the shadow remained in clear evidence. He had the dread king's glare, always stark and foreboding, despite whatever mood Eric might have.

Poppy let out a bark and pointed out into the snow before starting to scramble ahead in the stuff, already forgetting whatever lesson she should have learned about the dangers of the snow.

Eric followed, conjuring himself a pair of dark sunglasses to keep the cursed sun out of his eyes. I am beginning to see why you tend to get stuck so far north he mused.

Our greatest son had a fine palace he ruled over. It served as shield enough during the day. Will you be as successful?

Poppy barked in the distance, though became visible as the snow began to let up. The blizzard was passing, for better or worse.

The one the ponies are still terrified of? I’m going to measure my success by different criteria, Eric thought, trudging after Poppy. Like... number of ponies that know I use dark magic and are still my friend. Do sirens count? I'm going to count sirens... does that make me the record holder, at one?

You will learn to hate the ponies properly in due time. They already hate you, and they haven't even met you yet.

Following after Poppy, he could see a rail line cutting through the wilderness, going left to right. Poppy barked at the rails as if they could respond and sniffed up and down along them but didn't cross them.

"Good job, Poppy! Now if we had any sign of the others..." Eric looked about, hoping the clearing weather would grant enough visibility to spot the cave.

After a short while of inspecting the area and looking for the others, Tom and Wave came into view, trudging through the snow looking for them. Wave spotted them first and waved excitedly. She shouted, "There he is!" Though only Tom could have heard her easily.

Next Chapter: 17 - So, How Are the Kids? Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 20 Minutes