In a place far away.
Ice and snow pierce the sky of a kingdom long forgotten.
There, in the throne room of a grand citadel stands a secret frozen cold in a block of ice.
A secret soon to be unfold.
A scar appears on the block and a voice emits from the cold ice.

Celestia...

Princess Celestia yelled out of fear and woke up from her sleep. Not long after that, the door to her residence opened and trough it came a blue winged mare with a grand horn on her forehead. It was Celestia’s fair sister, Luna.

“Dear sister,” She said, “What happened?”

Celestia panted and sweated, it looked like she saw something. Something that the great ruler of Equestria never wanted to see. “Nothing, it was just a nightmare.” She said. Luna leaned backwards in fear, “A nightmare? I had one too.”

“About what, Luna?” Celestia asked.

“About him…”

…

Later that day, somewhere far but yet close to Castle Canterlot, lies a town called Ponyville. There stands a tree which is partly a house. In there, Twilight Sparkle is busy ordering her books for the third time that day. “Spike, do you know where Mythica: An appendix of Mythical Creatures in Equestria is?” Asked Twilight while she was surrounded by books which she made floating with a floating spell. The unicorn was talking to a little purple baby dragon who was cleaning the staircase. The little dragon looked at Twilight, “It’s floating right of you ,Twi.” he said. “Oh my, silly me.” Twilight said to herself and thanked Spike.

Suddenly there was someone knocking on the door. “Spike, could you open the door, please.” Twilight asked. Spike threw away the broom and ran to the door, he opened it only to find a blue Pegasus with rainbow dyed hair. “Hello, Rainbow Dash” Spike said and he let the Pegasus fly in. Twilight looked up to see that Rainbow Dash has entered the room and asked, “Let me guess, you’re here for Daring-Do: The Temple of Hoof, isn’t it?” The Pegasus blushed, “Of course, Twi.” she said. Spike barked a bit and Rainbow Dash frowned at him. “Something wrong with Daring-Do, Spike?” She asked.

“No, it’s just…” His sentence was interrupted when he barked up a scroll of paper. “It’s a message from Canterlot.” Said Twilight and used her floating spell to make the scroll fly towards her and roll open to read it.

Twilight, my dear student

There is something I would like to talk about with you and your friends.

Come to Canterlot Castle as soon as possible.

Your teacher, Princess Celestia

“What does it say, Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asked. “It seems that Daring-Do can wait Rainbow." Twilight said, "We are asked to come to Canterlot Castle immediately.”

“I’ll tell the rest and you’ll fire up that Hot Air Balloon.” Said the Pegasus and she fled like the wind through the door.

…

It was already midday when the six ponies and the little dragon came to Canterlot with the balloon. Rainbow Dash had to pull the balloon or else it would be too slow for her taste. Twilight, Rainbow Dash were companied by four other ponies: Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie Pie. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were already waiting for them at the castle gates.

“Twilight Sparkle, my dear student. I’m glad you and your friends could come on such a short notice. Enter, there’s much to be told.” They entered the throne room of the castle. The six ponies and Spike have been here already, they looked at the stained glass windows to see the confrontation between the princesses and the Spirit of Disharmony itself: Discord. Only looking at that picture made the six ponies shiver in fear. Princess Celestia walked up to her throne. “Sorry princess,” Said Applejack, “But why were we here again?”. Celestia pulled a secret handle and revealed a secret stairway. She looked at the orange pony with great worry on her face. “Through here lies the answer.” She said.

The six ponies, Spike and the two princesses walked down the stairway to find an old room filled with scrolls and books. Celestia used her magical unicorn horn to make the torches burn to add some light.

“What do you see here, dear substitutes?” She asked. The yellow Pegasus looked around and said: “Ehm… I see books and… eh… scrolls.” The princess smiled, “Yes, Fluttershy. But do you know what for books and scrolls these are?”
No answer came from the ponies, not even from Twilight Sparkle, who knows everything about books.
“You don’t know?” Asked Celestia, “Good, that was the meaning of this chamber.”
The ponies looked confused.

“This room is a safe house of everything literal and graphic of a certain stallion called Dusk Dawn.” Celestia said.
Twilight was startled, “Dusk Dawn, I never heard of him before.” Celestia looked worried at her sister, Luna.
Luna walked up to the her sister, “He.. He is our brother.” she said. Again, the ponies were startled but the dramatic silence was broken with the voice of Pinkie Pie, the pink Earth Pony.

“A brother!? I never knew you two had a brother! It’s like a big, what’s that word again? Plothole! Yeah, a plothole. Twilight always says something about that when I send her a manuscript of my book…”

Her chatter was interrupted when she saw that the others were looking at her with frowned faces.

“Oops, sorry.” She said, “Maybe it was, like Twilight always says, out of context.” With all that done, the attention was brought back to the princesses. “Yes, Dusk Dawn was our brother.” Said Celestia,
“Normally, an Alicorn like us can only be birth once in a thousand years. Even longer”

Luna took over, “But our mother gave birth to three: me, Celestia and Dusk Dawn. Having three baby Alicorns at the time was a big deal. So we got praised with love and affection from the whole of Equestria. We took our magic lessons of Starswirl the Bearded but Dusk Dawn abandoned the safe monastery of our teacher.” Twilight Sparkle glanced with surprise in her eyes, “You took lessons from Starswirl the Bearded? What was he like?” She asked but was answered with a: “That’s not the point right now.” by Celestia. Twilight looked to the ground, a bit ashamed right next to the other unicorn, Rarity.

“Where were we?” Celestia asked,
“Dusk Dawn abandoned the safe monastery of our teacher to go on adventurous trips. One of his trips was to the cold north. Where the first settlements of ponies lie.” Rarity asked, “Like that from that play we had to do on Heart’s Warming Eve?” Celestia answered: “Yes, Rarity.”

Luna continued, “There he found a cave and in that cave lied the frozen body of Discord.His voice spoke to him and asked our brother to free him from his icy prison. It took him days to scrape only a quarter of the ice on Discords body but that was enough for that foul dragon to free himself with his own strength and power. After that he took Dusk Dawn as his apprentice and majordomo.”

Luna stopped and started to shred tears, shame and sorrow could be read from her face.

“He was promised his own kingdom if he helped Discord take over Equestria.” Continued Celestia, “But in the end he helped us taking down Discord in our great battle against the dragon.”

“Then what was so bad about him? Okay, he freed Discord but he helped you, right?” Twilight asked.

“He helped us taking down Discord only so he couldn’t stand in his way for world domination!” Said Celestia.
"He started building his empire in the north, his dark magic allowed him to control the Windigoes in the region. From then on he was known as Cold Heart" Celestia then looked with worry to her crying sister. “His first move... That was when... It was him...” She got interrupted by a broken Luna,

“IT WAS HIM THAT TURNED ME INTO NIGHTMARE MOON!”

The ponies, again, where startled and Luna fell on the ground crying more broken than she looked a second ago.
Celestia continued: "After I prisoned Luna in the moon, he tried to corrupt me too. But I confronted him in his own citadel. After I grand battle, i could freeze him with the Elements of Harmony in a unbreakable block of arcane ice. I also covered up his whole kingdom under a glacier, so nobody could find him.”

Celestia, too, started to shed tears,
“I summoned all of you here because we started having nightmares. Both the same. We see that block of ice break, his voice emitting from it. We think it’s a bad omen.” The tearful moment was interrupted by one of the royal guards who entered the room.

“Where under attack,” He said, “Canterlot Castle is under attack!!!"

Celestia and Luna shivered in fear, “By who?”

"Windigoes!"

When the group ran outside to confront the menace that has befallen them, they watched in horror how the spectral horses known as the Windigoes brought ruin to the once beautiful city of Canterlot. One by one, every citizen got attacked and turned in a frozen state of hibernation. Twilight Sparkle was confused, "I thougth that the Windigoes only come when there's hate and conflict." She said to her teacher, Princess Celestia. Her expression showed that she was horrified, "I already told you a minute ago," She said, "His dark magic allowed him to control the Windigoes, that's the only explanation I can give."

But then a voice called down to our noble group, a voice dark, a voice as loud as thunder: "CELESTIA!!!" It roared, "LUNA!!!"

The two princesses watched in fear how a familiar bolt of shadow fell down from the sky and landed before them on the other side of the courtyard. From the bolt of shadow emitted a grand stallion, spreading it's demonic bat wings. His skin was dark gray and the magical horn burned in a black flame. His black manes that covered his eyes fell on the ground like shadows in contrast how Celestia's and Luna's manes floated in the sky like clouds. "It's been long, fair sisters." spoke the dark Alicorn with his head still pointed to the ground.

"Yes, it has been a long time, Dusk Dawn." Said Celestia with great valor in her voice but fear could still be read from her face. The dark Alicorn lifted his head in anger, showing his red, serpentine eyes, "My name is COLD HEART" he yelled with his thundering voice. Luna, still crying in fear, started crawling behind the protective body of her older sister. Celestia looked at her and then to the six ponies and dragon that were there too. "Go," She said, "Help the citizens, I'll take it from here."

The ponies and Spike ran trough the courtyard. The only obstacle in their course was Cold Heart but he let them pass him like they weren't even there, from the princesses' stand point so to speak. The ponies and the little dragon could see that his eyes watched them with a piercing gaze of ice cold bitterness but the most soft expression was pointed at the yellow, pink haired Pegasus, Fluttershy. But even that made the little pony shiver in fear.

When the the six ponies and Spike went trough the portal and left the courtyard, a gust of cold wind made the portal's doors close. "Ah hope that the princesses are okay." Said Applejack who looked worried at the closed gate. Twilight looked at her friends, "They will make it, I'm sure of it." She said. "Did you saw how the brute looked at us?" Rarity said with a snobby tone in her voice. "Well... He kinda.. eh... looked less bitter at... eh... me..." Fluttershy mumbled but nobody heard her due to the screaming agony of the Canterlot citizens. "We'll have to split," Twilight said, "We have to evacuate everypony to safety." All the ponies nodded and went their separate ways. Twilight and Spike went to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, Rarity and Pinkie Pie went to the market district, Applejack went to the gardens while Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy checked the race track.

...

The tension is rising on the courtyard, the two princesses stood there alone with their evil brother. "That was kind of rude what you did to me thousand years ago." Said the stallion with arrogance in his voice. Celestia spoke in a strong voice: "You got what you deserved, a punishment that knows no equal. Imprisonment in ice while your body still lives, a fate worse than death." With those words, Luna found the little valor she needed to step away from her sister's back and stand right next to her. They stood there like a force one. Cold Heart laughed. His laugh was as cold as snow. He laughed for the way they stood there, thinking they stood strong together.

He scolded the dark blue Alicorn: "Now Luna, you grew a pair since we last met. I still remember the days when you still held to me like a little filly with no sense of self worth" Those words hurt her, they stung like an angry hornet. She looked to the ground, shedding tears. She too remembered the days when he was still called Dusk Dawn. He was her big brother, she loved him, she liked to play games with him. Celestia looked to her crying sister. Her heart broke from the sight of the once noble Princess Luna lying on the ground broken and crying. She lifted her anger to the stallion before them, "You... Don't you have a shard of the love and compassion you had when we were young?" Cold Heart laughed again and answered her question: "Left it in the ice you prisoned me in..."

"SHUT UP!!!"

The trees and bushes that were rooted in the grounds of the courtyard started floating. Luna was using a floating spell, with her eyes tearing, her horn glowing bright and her teeth gritting. The floating objects flew at high speed towards the dark Alicorn but he drove them out of the way like it was nothing. Cold Heart laughed again, "It seems your magic hasn't fully redeveloped yet since your return." Then he lowered his head, spreading his demonic wings. His eyes and horn started to glow and he let out a mighty shriek. His scream was so loud, so powerful that it blew the two princesses trough the castle gates.

...

Applejack ran trough the gardens, yelling at everypony to leave Canterlot as fast as they can. But it was to no avail due to the Windigoes' ice cold touch that made them freeze on location. "At this rate, everypony will be turned in an ice cube!" She said to herself. She saw no use anymore as everypony was lost since the start of this attack. She decided to take a run from it, to her friends but she halted by the sight of Discord's statue. It was both menacing and funny at the same time, with the position he took while he was turned back into stone. He totally didn't see that coming. The coldness that flew in the air started to freeze even harder as Applejack turned around to see a Windigo standing right behind her. He looked like a normal horse but his spectral appearance proved otherwise. It snickered like mad and it's eyes were cold blue. What took Applejack by surprise that it turned in a puff of smoke instead of turning her in a ice cube right away. The puff of smoke smacked right into the pony's face and entered her nose like a scent. "Hoowi, what was... that ... all... abou..." Her nose felt frozen, her sight started to fade and the last thing she felt before entering the darkness was how she hit the ground.

When the six fillies went their separate ways to evacuate the citizens of Canterlot. But they can barely fly due to the endless swirl of Windigoes that conquers the sky. When Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy reached the race track they saw the Wonderbolts in a grand dog fight with the spectral horses, apparently losing it. The two Pegasi watched how one of the Windigoes froze on of the Wonderbolts' wings, making him or her falling to his or her death. Fluttershy grasped in terror and while she stood there Rainbow Dash zoofed towards the falling Pegasus. She flew like the wind, no time to think about the Windigoes that surrounded her and tried to change her in a block of ice, she even rammed on of the Windigoes who combusted in smoke after impact. She made a downfall, building speed to grab the falling Wonderbolt. Rainbow Dash ultimately reached the Pegasus and pulled up to make her fly back upwards, making an explosion that combusted all the colors of the visual spectrum. Rainbow Dash noticed her multi-colored mane leaving behind a rainbow-like trail and laughed in joy.

"OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH!!!"

Fluttershy saw it all happen, "She did it," she said, "She performed a Sonic Rainboom!!!" And she sheered on to Rainbow Dash like a cheerleader, even though the rainbow maned pegasus couldn't hear it.

While flying back up, Rainbow Dash took a better look at the unconscious Wonderbolt she just saved. She couldn't believe her eyes when she saw her fiery manes and yellow skin in the open parts of her Wonderbolt costume. "OH MY GOSH!!!" She yelled, "You're the Wonderbolts' captain, Spitfire!" The captain opened her eyes, "What happened?" The captain asked but looking at her frozen wings made the answer quite obvious. She looked up to recognize the heroic Pegasus that saved her from death. "Hey you," She said, "You're that Sonic Rainboom girl. Rainbow Dash wasn't it?" Rainbow Dash grinned and blushed, "Ye...Yes ma'am."

Rainbow Dash was filled with joy, she saw this as a chance to become a Wonderbolt herself. But her happy thoughts were ruined by the surrounding Windigoes and the sight of the other Wonderbolts' frozen bodies on the cloudy racetrack.

...

Applejack found herself in a dark, cold room. It was so dark that she couldn't even see her hoof before her eyes. She was alone, better yet, thought she was alone. Applejack got the goosebumps when she heard a voice emitting from the shadows. It sounded cold, cold as the most frozen regions of the north.

"Nobody can save you..."

"What in tarnation?"

"Nobody can save your friends..."

"Like heck ah can!"

Then suddenly, light blinded the little foal, forcing her eyes to shut tight. When she opened it again. She saw images of her and the rest arguing. No, not her. Only the rest. But what made the pony find stranger is the fact that Fluttershy isn't with them. "Where... Where's Fluttershy?" She asked and the voice answered: "By that point in time, she met her fate."

Applejack was horrified. "Do you... Do you mean?" But another sight made her shock in terror. She saw how the arguing ended up in conflict. All ponies went their separate ways. Their friendship was over.

"No, not this again..." She said to herself. But more images started showing up. All of her friends, dead, all lying in the snow of the northern continent. Applejack started screaming and crying.

"Can you tell the truth about their fate?" The voice said to her, "Do you dare to tell the truth about their fate?"

And while she cried in agony, everything went dark again and silence ensued...

"..."

"A...ack!"

"APPLEJACK"

Applejack woke up from her sleep, what she saw before her was a lavender coated pony and a purple baby dragon. "Twilight, is that you?" She asked. "Yes, but what happened to you?" Twilight was looking at her friend who was pale and had a giant purple bruise on her forehead, probably from the collision between her head and the ground. Applejack moaned in pain on her forehead. She wanted to tell her about what she saw while she was sleeping, or what she could recall as sleeping. she reall wanted to but what she brought out was: "Nothing. Nothin' happened." She lied, something she would never do to her friends or any other pony. Twilight looked at her, "Really?" she asked. "No, nothin' special. Just got a... a rock on mah forehead, that's all." Applejack lied again, she felt uncomfortable doing that. The last time she lied to her friends was while she was corrupted by Discord. That very same Discord that turned in a statue which now stands in the garden where the two ponies and the little dragon were right now. "But what happened to you? Weren't you evacuatin' the ponies at the college?" She asked and Twilight nodded, "I was," then she pointed her head to the ground, "But it was all in vain..."

Spike interrupted Twilight and said: "It seems that the Windigoes are low on victims I think," and the little dragon pointed in the sky at the spectral spirits that were looming above them. "I'd say: RUN!!!" Applejack yelled and the three of them ran as fast as they can away from spirits of cold. They ran and they ran but shaking of the Windigoes was not an easy task. They ran all the way to Canterlot Square where they collided into Rarity and Pinkie Pie who also were running for their lives. "My dear, what a travesty! Everybody was frozen, we couldn't do anything, Pinkie just dancing around and now we are going to DIE!!!" Rarity yelled and feigned a pass out while Pinkie Pie was just jumping around like crazy. Her happiness should get rid of the 'scary stuff' but the last time she used it was on illusions made by Nightmare Moon. Those were illusions and the creeps they stood against were real as they could be.

Spike yelled at her: "It's not going to work Pinkie Pie," but the pink filly still jumped around trying to get rid of the Windigoes. She tried but the expression she suddenly got made you know that she's starting to realize that it, indeed, isn't working. The cold spirits were just running around the group, making some kind of cloud around them. It was like they had all the time of the world and that they could wait. But an opening was made in the cloud to make entrance to three Pegasi.
"Fluttershy? Rainbow Dash?" Pinkie said when she recognized two of the three Pegasi but the third was a complete stranger to her. The other Pegasus stood up and said : No standing ovation for a Wonderbolt? The name's Spitfire by the way."

The Windigoes where still spinning around the group but started to come closer and closer. Twilight and Rarity started using spells but they were to no avail, the spirits were unstoppable. "We've failed," Twilight said, "We couldn't do anything to save the citizens and we can't even save ourselves." She started tearing up and the others looked at her. Fluttershy stood there , frozen. Not by the Windigoes but by fear, the shock of seeing all those people being transformed into ice cubes. Everyone stood ready to meet their fate but Applejack knew that this wasn't the end, not from what she saw in her vision, "No, this cannot be the end." she said. Spike felt the same, "Of course it isn't. Don't you remember the play we did on Heart's Warming Eve?" he said with great confidence. Twilight dried her tears, she knew where this was going, "The Flame of Friendship!"

"But according to the play we have to become friends, how do we become if we're friends already!" Rainbow Dash said. Everybody started thinking about it. It was true what she said, in the play the three assistant became friends and that made the Flame of Friendship appear that made the Windigoes run away in fear. In the play they became friends while the ponies standing there were friends already. "Maybe... We could think about the fun times we had... Just asking..." Fluttershy uttered, Twilight found confidence again. "That's it," she said with a big smile, "Think, think about our fun times as friends. Think like your life depends on it!" And everyone, even Spitfire started thinking. Even though she barely knew them she tried to think about the Grand Galloping Gala and about her Wonderbolt colleagues. They where thinking and thinking and the Windigoes started to come closer and closer. The spectral horses were just a hoof away from our heroes but they were cut off by a bright light in the form of a pink flaming heart.

The Windigoes flew away from the pink, fiery heart that materialised abouve the group. In like a millisecond all the spirits dissapeared around them and the whole of Canterlot. The ponies opened their eyes to see Twilight Sparkle hovering in the air with her eyes glowing bright but eventually landed and her eyes stopped glowing. "Ma gawsh, Twilight!" Applejack uttered while the rest stood there with their mouths open. Twilight jumped in the air in joy, they saved themselves and the whole of Canterlot. Or that's what she thought. The happy atmosphere was broken by a scream, a scream of fear, Fluttershy's scream. The ponies looked at her and they saw the frozen body of Spike, the little baby dragon. "S...Spike?" Twilight stuttered when she saw the draconic ice cube. Then they looked around them and saw Spitfire who also was frozen. Not only Spitfire and Spike but every citizen in Canterlot were still frozen. "How could this be..." Twilight stuttered again but Rainbow Dash interrupted her, "What is this!? Wasn't the Fire of Friendship going to unfreeze them or not!?" She flew in the air in anger and insecurity and Fluttershy screamed again in shock and fell on the ground crying.

But then, out of nowhere. An explosion cut of Fluttershy's agonizing scream, that explosion came from Canterlot Castle where our heroes could see a giant sphere of light flying up in the sky containing three Alicorns.

...

The two princesses were lying on the ground in the Entrance Hall. In pain thanks to the collision of the gate they flew through, they both coughed. Luna started tearing up again, not only out of physical pain but also from mental pain. The pain of having her brother who she loved and cherished above all except her sister, Celestia, hurting her to the very core of her heart. While she had trouble getting up, due to her agony, her sister stood up to embrace the danger of the evil Alicorn that entered the hall trough the broken gate. She stood there with tears in her eyes but with an expression full of valor and self-confidence. Her rainbow colored manes playing in the air like they were clouds. She was ready for the terrible things that Cold Heart had ready for her.

Cold Heart looked around the hall, "Nice home," he complimented.

The hall got overrun by the Royal Guards, all ready to protect their princesses from harm. A first wave of guards attacked the stallion head-on only to feel the wrath of his hate that has boiled up trough the years he was imprisoned. His horn started to glow icy blue and in a millisecond bolts of magic emitted from it, all pointed towards the guards that attacked him recklessly. All the other guards saw in horror how their comrades turned into ice, one by one.

Cold Heart laughed out loud, with the same ice cold laugh he used a minute ago. "Pitiful," He said with a grin on his face.

All the rest of the guard started attacking too, not only because it's their duty but it was also out of revenge for their fallen comrades. Cold Heart only started laughing harder while his horn started glowing again. Before he could freeze them, the guards suddenly stopped when they heard a loud voice saying: "GUARDS, STAND DOWN!!!"

The loud thundering voice was from none other than Princess Celestia. They never heard her yell like that, not in their lifetime. Celestia then used her normal tone again, "This is my problem and I have to solve it," she said to her loyal guards.

"Our problem, sister..."

Princess Luna has stood up and walked right up to her big sister. "And we will solve it..." She said with great confidence and heartbroken anger.

The evil brother laughed again. "Allow me to clean up the battlefield then," He said as he used his magic to let the Pegasi Guards float in the air, turn them into ice and throw them against the wall making them shatter in pieces. With that done, the two princesses still stand strong but shock could be read from their expressions. Cold Heart grinned evilly, "Ladies first..."

The sisters spread their wings as their eyes and horns started glowing and manes flowing in the air more viciously.

"ARCANA FULGORE!!!"

As they yelled out the magic words, rune seals appeared above them and start shooting giant fiery bolts of magic on Cold Heart like a missile barrage. Just before they could hit the evil stallion another magic spell is heard being cast.

"MINAX VIRTUS!!!"

A giant puff of smoke emitted from the point where Cold Heart stood when the bolts presumably hit him. It took a minute of silence to let the smoke fade away only to let the sisters find their brother still standing there, grinning, harmless like nothing happened at all. Minax Virtus was a protection spell and a strong one at that.

His eyes started glowing red trough his long, shadowy manes. Whispering words that not even the princesses could understand.

"Sa i lya gyndi dujas ripest nori niamend..."

The whispering started to echo trough the hall, Celestia and Luna stood ready for what was coming. But Luna started shivering, she remembered the gibberish that her brother was whispering. She, again, fell on the ground holding her hooves against her ears. "No, not again, NOT AGAIN!!!" She yelled, Celestia looked at her sister and started to remember the gibberish too.

"Siplokt ordil warg soomhur eadh..."

It was loud and clear, he was trying to brainwash Luna again. She bowed before her crying sister, starting to shed tears herself. She couldn't let her sister turn back into Nightmare Moon, not when they were together again after a thousand years. She couldn't let her, she couldn't...

"Luna! Don't let him get to you!"

Celestia shouted as hard as she can to get trough Luna but what the broken sister heard was something different.

"Weak..."

"You're not the evil that he tries to turn you in!"

"I'm embarrassed to have a weak runt like you as family..."

"Don't dissapear again, dear sister!"

"I should have sealed you back in the moon..."

"You're not worth the royal title..."
"You're not worth the responsibility..."
"You're not worth my love..."
"Mom and dad would be ashamed of you..."

Celestia started crying, her yelling turned into screaming as she saw how Luna's innocent face started fading away.

"I can't.. let you do this... PHILOMEENA!!!"

From up the stairs appeared a majestic bird with fiery wings and feathers, which flew graciously and beautiful over the chamber. It was Celestia's pet phoenix, Philomeena. After her short flight around the chamber, Philomeena flew towards Celestia to sit atop her golden crown. With the slightest touch of the phoenix' claw on the crown, the bird strangely fused with the crown, making it start glowing. Celestia's manes became more fiery and out of rage she yelled:

"LUX AURORAE!!!"

She spoke the words, her body and the whole room started to glow with a piercing and blinding light. Before Cold Heart could notice, they were floating in the air in a giant sphere of light. The debris of the castle couldn't hold the majestic power and collapses around them as the sphere started rising higher and higher. Cold Heart has felt Celestia's wrath before but this was completely new to him. He was for the first time surprised. Celestia's body was still glowing brightly while her sister just floated right next to her.

"I WON'T ALLOW YOU, YOU'RE NOT TAKING HER AGAIN AWAY FROM ME, I'LL MAKE YOU SUFFER A THOUSAND PAINS BEFORE YOU CAN EVEN MAKE A MOVE!!!"

Celestia bowed her head, transforming the sphere into thousand needles. If she rises her head again, it's would be all over. "Si....Sister...?" Celestia heard, it came from Luna. Celestia cried in joy, she saved her sister from becoming the darkness she was a millennium ago. But her joy was cut short as she received a magic beam right in the face from her dear sister. She lost control of her spell and the three of them fell down again. As they fell, she could see how Luna became wrapped in shadows and Cold Heart was laughing. They were back on the floor of the, now shattered, hall. Celestia landed with a painful bash on the back while Cold Heart and Luna were still floating.

The shadows around Luna disappeared. Luna no more. Where she stood stands another, Nightmare Moon...

Celestia looked up in horror. Her sister, Luna, was turned back into the creature feared by everyone, Nightmare Moon. Just when she started to get used to normal life, all her effort thrown away by silent gibberish. She cried, crying at her failure to protect Luna from becoming Nightmare Moon again. Cold Heart laughed maniacally, his laugh sounded even colder than before. "What a climax, isn't it?" He asked dastardly, "Seeing you tremble at the sight of your beloved sister becoming this crature, HAHA!" He laughed again, his maniacal joy could not be comprehended. Nightmare Moon's horn started glowing making Celestia float. She couldn't escape the hold of her floating spell. Cold Heart walked up to the floating princess and asked: "Now... where are those Elements of Harmony this time?" Celestia's eyes peeled open, she was shocked at the line 'this time'. "What do you mean by 'this time'?" She asked, the evil brother grinned and answered her with another question, "Oh I forgot, remember that faithful day thousand years ago? The day when you sealed me in my icy prison with the Elements?"

Celestia nodded and Cold Heart continued: "Well, shamefully enough, you only locked up my body, while my spirit still could roam free." This made Celestia shock, she didn't used the spell to properly seal him away. "I followed every step you made. I saw how the Elements became part of those 'mane six'. I saw how that our beloved sister and Discord's seals were broken. It was only a matter of time before my release was near..." He continued, "The Elements were supposed to be in that lock-box when Discord was released but they weren't there, isn't it? Now, I want to know where they are now.." Celestia became angered, she failed in protecting Luna but she won't let the Elements fall into his hooves. "The Elements aren't yours to take! They belong to the ones the Elements have chosen to bear them! They disappear only to appear again when needed, even I don't know where they are."

Silence filled the room after Celestia's outburst but the silence broke when Nightmare Moon threw Celestia against a wall. Cold Heart walked up to her, "Don't you want to tell me?" He asked again but Celestia's answer was a predictable: "Never!" The evil Alicorn grinned again, "Then I'll have to ask it to your loyal subject... Twilight Sparkle, wasn't it?" This made Celestia more angered, "Don't even dare to lay a hoof on her, fiend!" she yelled but her yell was cut short by the icy touch of Cold Heart's horn. "Sssh..." He whispered in her ear, "It's time to sleep, dear sister." And those were the final words she heard as her vision blurred and her body started to feel cold...

"CELESTIA!!!"

...

Twilight and the rest of the mare six went to the shattered remains of Canterlot Castle as fast as they could, Princess Celestia's fall didn't went unnoticed. This time they didn't had to worry about the rabid Windigoes as they already fled from the scene, only leaving the frozen citizens of Canterlot to remain silent. Through the rubble in the courtyard they ran to the forcefully opened castle gate to enter the Entrance Hall, where they saw how Cold Heart turned Princess Celestia into an ice statue.

Twilight was of course shocked to see her teacher she knew and loved as a second mother taken away from her by someone fueled by hatred and evil. As she teared, she shouted, her cry could be heard clearly on the other side of the Entrance Hall:

"CELESTIA!!!"

Cold Heart and Nightmare Moon stared and glanced at the crying Unicorn and her friends. Nightmare opened her eyes wide and turned into a puff of smoke and in a millisecond, the smoke stood behind Twilight and materialized back into the evil Alicorn. Her cloudy mane wrapped around the little Unicorn, holding her in the air, "Twilight Sparkle, long time no see!" she yelled and threw her against the other ponies, "My vengeance will be absolute, foals!" She smiled with her teeth visible, it was like she lost control of herself but her incoming wrath was halted by her, seemingly weakened, brother, "Your vengeance can wait, dear sister." He walked up to her, he panted and fell on the ground.

Nightmare Moon helped him stand back on his hooves. "Turning you back drained a lot of mana, freezing Celestia made it worse..." He said, wrapping his bat like wings around him and Nightmare.

"Our paths will cross again... Soon Enough..."

After taking a last look on the injured ponies he and his sister disappeared in a flash, vanished into thin air. The ponies had problems getting back up, getting a pony flying in your face was everything except painless. "Gawsh Twilight, what did ya eat to get so heavy?" Applejack asked but her question went unanswered as Twilight ran to the frozen body of the beloved Princess Celestia. She screamed, she cried, her face was wet with tears. She hooked herself on the neck of her teacher, both Rainbow Dash and Applejack had to pull her off the statue. Which wasn't easy as she kept resisting, Celestia never let Twilight behind so why should she?

In the end Twilight calmed and she let go. The six of them were alone, the sky was still cloudy and the only sound they heard was the cold wind. The castle lied in ruin and everypony in Canterlot were turned into a statue of ice, even Spike. They stood there, lost and broken. They couldn't save the city nor the princess. There was nothing for them to do. They could only comfort each other in a group hug and take the hot air balloon back to Ponyville, leaving the ruined city of Canterlot and it's citizens behind.

...

"Dear brother, are you alright?" Nightmare Moon asked.

"Does it look like I'm okay? If I stayed there and used my magic on those foals, my mana would be drained and I could fell prey to those blasted elements." Cold Heart roared with glowing red eyes.

"I'm lucky enough that I still had a sprinkle left to teleport to this place, the palace of the royal pony sisters."

"What are we to do now?"

"For now we wait, when the time's right... My plan will be set in motion and those Elements will be mine to take."

...

It was already evening when the ponies came back in Ponyville, everypony was at home, probably sleeping. It was dark and the only sources of light were the street lanterns, some windows and Twilight's library tree-house. "Hey, look Twilight! You forgot to put out the light before we left!" Pinkie Pie yelled but Twilight wasn't really in the mood for jokes, she looked at her house and said to Pinkie: "But I didn't even put on the light to begin with!"

"Then who did, dear?" Rarity asked.

"We're about to find out" Twilight answered, "Be quite, maybe it's one of those Windigoes..."

Rainbow Dash started flying in rage, "Windigoes!? Screw the silent way, they're gonna pay!"

"No, Rainbow! Wait!" Twiligth yelled but it was already too late, the blue Pegasus flew trough the door.

"Okay spooks! Who's asses... need a... kickin'..."

Twilight and the rest entered the house, not to find a Windigoe but a Unicorn couple. The colt was blue with darker blue manes and two crescent moons as his cutie mark. The mare was periwinkle with the same mane-style as Twilight but medium purple in color and white dye-lines, completing it with three purple stars as her cutie mark.

The mare looked at Twilight, "Lil' Twilight? Is that you?"

"Mom? Dad?"

Twilight Sparkle hugged her parents as hard as she can, she won't let them go as she did with Princess Celestia. A single tear fell down her cheek as she asked: "What are you doing here?"

"We could barely meet up with you when you became Celestia's private student." Twilight's mom said.

Twilight's dad continued: "Even less since you moved to Ponyville."

The couple then took a look on the five other ponies that were in the room, the five stood there enjoying the beautiful reunion.

"And these are you're friends, if I'm right?"

"Sure we are, ma'am" Applejack answered and the rest nodded.

Twilight's mother smiled happily, "Happy to meet you all, my name is Periwinkle."

The couple finally escaped the grasp of their daughter, "And my name is Crescent," the father said.

The five ponies all gave their up their names in response. The group talked about the adventures they've had and the lessons they've learned. Laughs were shared and the massacre of Canterlot looked like it never happened.

"I know what we could do! We hold a Twilight's-parents-suprised-visit-partyyyyy!!!" Pinkie Pie yelled in joy.

The Unicorn couple looked at her like she was a stranger, "A party, now? At this hour?"

"Ofcourse, silly! It's never too late for a party or too early! Parties are important, they show the goodness of happiness! And balloons, balloons are like the best! YAAAAAY!"

As Pinkie was blabbering about the definition of parties and the grand philosophies around it, everyone already started putting up the decorations and snacks out of Twilight's kitchen. When Pinkie wants to party, there's no way to prevent a party being build. Everyone was in a, kind of, good mood. The events of today weren't erased from their memories, the party couldn't sooth their despair. The topic was brought up when Periwinkle asked her daughter:

"Twilight... Where's Spike?"

The party went silent when she asked the question, everypony had their heads pointed to the ground. Images of the massacre dripped like blood over the happy moments they had a for few minutes. The silence that hung in the decorated room was broken by the sobbing Fluttershy.

"Fluttershy, dear..." Crescent tried to comfort the Pegasus but she started to cry harder and with a scream she ran out of the tree-house trough the front door, into the dark and starry night.

Twilight's mom looked at the front door with great worry: "Oh dear, did something happen?"

"You don't know?" Twilight asked.

"Don't know what?"

"What happened today in Canterlot!"

"We were her since mid-day, dear." Crescent said "Now tell us, what happened in Canterlot?" he asked.

...

Fluttershy ran with tears trough the starry night. She ran and ran past the street lanterns and benches. After a long walk she eventually ended up before her own house. She stood before the little bridge that crossed the little river that flew by. As she crossed the little bridge she stood before her door. Her house was big and the roof is filled with leaves, grass and some bird houses to give it a nice touch. The sight of such beauty made her heart more warm as it was cold from the shock and fear she encountered today.

"Angel! Mommy's home!" She yelled as she entered her house.

From behind the seat a little white rabbit appeared and hopped towards the yellow Pegasus. Fluttershy petted the little rabbit, "Oh dear, you will not believe what a horrible day I had, Angel." They started to hug but the hugging became tighter as the room started to become cold and a mist started to emit.

Fluttershy...

The Pegasus started to hug Angel harder, almost choking the little rabbit.

"Who... Who's t... Who's there?" She asked

Kindness...

"You're... starting to scare m... Me"

Beauty and grace that gives light in the darkness that is chaos and disharmony...

"If you're... talking about... how Discord couldn't corrupt me..."

The mist that filled the room started to collect itself before Fluttershy, becoming a physical being. A giant, winged being with red eyes noticeable trough the concentrated mist.

...

"Oh my, Twilight. We're lucky we decided to visit you today." Twilight's mother said.

Crescent's blue coat became red in anger, "What where you thinking, daughter! You could've been killed by this Coldheart figure! That you possess the Elements of Harmony doesn't mean you have to confront dangers head on!"

The five ponies still pointed their heads towards the floor. Twilight's father fury was frightening but that's to show the concern for his daughter he barely to never sees. Periwinkle comforted her husband, asking him to calm down.

"Let's just be happy that Twilight and her friends are okay, dear."

Crescent calmed down, his coat returned to its dark blue color, "Yes, honey."

During Twilight's father's outburst, nobody could see the little white bunny that entered the tree-house. Rarity was the first to notice, "Angel? What are you doing here, darling?" she said.

Angel was just hopping around desperately, like she wanted to tell them something.

"Angel... Where's Fluttershy?" Applejack asked

Angel was still hopping around after she started to sense that the ponies in the room don't know what she tries to tell she started to use hand gestures for a pencil and a piece of paper. After a couple of tries, Angel could finally let them understood her and Twilight used her levitation magic to give the little bunny the pencil and paper. Angel started to scribble on the paper, since she is a rabbit her drawing abilities aren't that much to the artistic side. Eventually they started to recognize what the little bunny was drawing or at least Pinkie Pie could recognize what Angel drew.

"Ooh! Ooh! I know it! I know! It's a... a chocolate piñata! No, it's Derpy eating a muffin! No, that's not it."

Angel looked at Pinkie Pie like she was a stranger and showed the drawing to the other ponies. On the paper was a yellow spot with pink lines drawn over it and two yellow strokes on the top. "That yellow spot is obviously your friend, Fluttershy" Crescent said, "But what about the other?" He pointed towards the big black spot that stood opposite to the spot that's supposed to be Fluttershy. The spot had a small black line on top of it's 'head' and like Fluttershy's spot it had two strokes on it's 'back', but these were black like it's 'body'. What was also noticeable were the two red dots on it's 'face'. It took a while but Twilight could finally realize who or what that black dot was. She looked at the drawing with a expression that was filled with fear, a fear that made your spine go cold as ice. Her parents looked at their daughter with worry.

"Do you know who this is, honey?" Her mother asked.

Twilight did not answer, she was still staring at the picture. Her friends still couldn't recognize the black thing but a look on Twilight's face made them guess the obvious.

Rainbow Dash asked Twilight: "Is it...?"

The Unicorn didn't answer.

Applejack tried to wake her up out of her 'status': "Twi....?"

"It's him..."