"Happy birthday, girls," Steelmind said. "So, Frostburn, how are you enjoying your party?" Stonebolt narrowed her eyes in frustration. It was a minor annoyance of hers, and didn't come up as often as it used to, but Stonebolt and Frostburn were always getting confused for each other, even though the only physical similarity the two shared was their father's freckles.
"First off, Steelmind," she corrected him. "it's my birthday too. We're twins, and you know this. Second, I'm Stonebolt, and she's Frostburn." she said this while gesturing to her sister standing right next to her.
"Sorry, Stone," he said. "I've just been kinda out of it for the past few weeks. I was working on Frostburn's present." Frostburn's eyes lit up excitedly.
"You got me a present," she squealed, bouncing up and down. He nodded, leading her outside as the other guests followed curiously. When they got outside, a pair of shapes stood covered over by large tarps. "You got me two presents?"
"Actually," he said. "It's just the one. The other one's for your sister." he lifted off the tarp of the first one to reveal a large metal statue of Steelmind and Frostburn locked in a passionate embrace. The other tarp revealed a statue of Stonebolt triumphantly rising above a dragon with a sword gripped in her teeth. The crowd looked at both in awe, especially Stonebolt's.
"Steelmind," Frostburn said breathlessly. "it's beautiful. You made these?" he nodded.
"All it really took was control of metal, check, a lot of time and patience, check, and something wonderful and breathtakingly gorgeous to draw inspiration from," he explained, leaning up close to Frostburn. "Check." Frostburn pulled him close to her, and they kissed.
The party continued for another few hours, Infernalo dismissing the darkening sky as something concocted by Weather Trossels. However, the peculiar shaded crimson lightning stirred up new suspicions entirely. Frostburn pulled him away from the window quickly and kissed him on the cheek.
"That's for the gift you got me and Stone for our birthday," she said. "It was really sweet of you." Infernalo smirked.
"Anything for my baby sister," he said. Frostburn smiled, and dragged him along with her.
"C'mon, join the party," she insisted. Infernalo allowed Frostburn to drag him along before pulling away when Aquashine walked up to him.
"Infernalo, why don't you and I go somewhere a little quieter," she asked, batting her eyelashes. Frostburn shot an angry look at her brother, but he ignored her and followed Aquashine outside.
"Stupid Aquashine," Frostburn grumbled under her breath. "Ruining my party, stealing my brother." Outside another bolt of red lightning came down, this one was much closer to the building now. The guests took notice to this, Leafwind hiding behind Frostburn for protection. Infernalo and Aquashine rushed back inside and locked the door behind them. "What's happening," Frostburn asked Infernalo. He shrugged, but then shuddered in horror. Five figures arose from a thick cloud of mist outside, all of them not-too-friendly Trossels. The one on the far left was a dark green Trossel with his irises each a different color and a permanent grin spread across his face. His mane and tail was several shades of very dirty browns and burgundies and blacks, styled in a state of complete disarray. The Trossel of the left was a silvery mare with an eyepatch covering her right eye and a long black jagged scar. There were several stitches running across her body, legs, face, and neck. Her one visible eye was completely white without any iris or even pupil. Her mane and tail were a single perpetual ball of white-hot fire. The Trossel in the middle was completely black from his hooves to his head, except for a taupe tail with thick pale blue streaks through it. His mane wasn't visible, presumably because of the dark violet cloak covering his face. A glimmer of bright yellow showed through his hood, suggesting where his eyes were. A large red F was emblazoned on the front of his robe, which seemed to glow an unsettling aura. The Trossel on the right, also male, was the largest of the five. He was a dusty shade of dark green with piercing electric blue eyes. His tail was nonexistent but his bright orange mane came almost down to his front hooves. His face seemed to be almost carved into a permanent sneer of hatred and rage. The final Trossel on the far right was a small, almost pathetic, blue-grey mare with her black mane covering most of her face and her tail dragging across the ground. One of her eyes was nothing more than solid black with a small blue dot in the center while the other eye was dark blue and puffy as though she'd been crying for a long while. The five Trossels all kept at the exact same pace, marching rhythmically with the others' hoofsteps before finally stopping. Infernalo, against every moral fiber of his body, opened the window and looked out at them. The air outside had become thick and stale as the sky began to darken further.
"You're the Cursed Trossels, aren't you," Infernalo asked. They nodded in unison. "Galtora, the Trossel of Sanity, Belzaro, the Trossel of Sin itself, Frarae, the Trossel of Vengeance, Thorok, the Trossel of Chaos, and Xeviole, the Trossel of Guilt?" Each one nodded once upon mention of their respective title. A sharp forked tongue darted out of Galtora's mouth briefly before returning. "Who sent you?" Frarae raised a hoof and gestured to the statue of Frostburn. Frostburn shrank back and hid somewhere in shame while everypony was fixed on what the Cursed Trossels would do. Belzaro lifted her hoof and stomped on the ground three times before scraping it once. They all nodded and finally vanished in a cloud of black smoke. The sky slowly began clearing up as Leafwind looked up to see Frostburn wasn't where she thought she was all along.
"Where's Frostburn," she asked. The guests all began murmuring worriedly, believing the Cursed Trossels might've inducted the pony who summoned them. Stonebolt, though, slinked off and followed the faint sobbing sounds she'd heard to a small room where Frostburn was hiding under a bed, crawling deeper under when Stonebolt spotted her.
"Frosty," Stonebolt asked, clearly more concerned about her sister than anything else. "is that you?" Frostburn sniffed and crawled deeper in, refusing to respond. "are you okay?" Frostburn whimpers slowly degraded to sharp sorrowful whines. "Frosty, it's okay. Come on out. You've got nothing to worry about." Frostburn shook her head furiously and Stonebolt looked down at her.
"E-everypony's going to h-h-hate me," Frostburn sobbed, finally breaking down completely. Stonebolt dragged the distraught and hysterical pony out from under the bed, and tried to console her.
"Frosty," Stonebolt said. "What's wrong?" Frostburn was sobbing too much to answer and simply threw herself on the matters in distress.
"I didn't know," she said through pained tears. "I-I swear I didn't..." she broke down again and resumed her sobbing even more. Without warning, a large black void opened under their feet and they appeared outside Seldreinia's border, Frostburn still crying to inconsolable. She looked up at Infernalo's stern and judgmental glare and sniffed. "Where are we going?"
"Shut up," Infernalo ordered. There had always been times when Frostburn had annoyed Infernalo or made him angry with her, but there had always been some minute token deep down when she knew they were still family and he still loved her; this time there was nothing. This was the first time in Frostburn's life when she truly, genuinely believed that he hated her. "We're going somewhere far enough away that nopony, not even the Cursed Trossels, will be able to reach us." Frostburn noticed his white-hot glare turn to her upon mentioning Them. They slowly trotted along down the road, other Trossels also evacuating in opposite directions. This is the worst birthday ever, Frostburn thought as she and Stonebolt looked down at their respective presents from Steelmind. Frostburn didn't stop crying the entire walk, which lasted what felt like hours. Infernalo drowned it out by pulling out his book from his bags while Stonebolt had managed to calm Frostburn down enough to get her to stop crying.
"Infernalo," she sniffed. "I said I was sorry. I didn't know about that puzzle box; it could've been anypony to bring this upon us." He shot a look of disgust over his shoulder, before turning back to his book. I deserve that, Frostburn thought, trying her hardest not to start crying again. Stonebolt put a hoof reassuringly, to which Frostburn instinctively looked over at her Thunder Trossel sister.
"Frosty," she asked. "Are you okay?" Frostburn shook her head fiercely.
"I doomed our home," she said, her voice shaking and becoming harder and harder to fight back tears. "Everypony is going to die because of me." She burst into tears once again before she could go on. Stonebolt decided to give her some space and caught up with Infernalo, who'd finished the latest chapter.
"Don't you think that you're a little hard on her," Stonebolt asked.
"She's the same age as you, but twenty minutes younger," Infernalo reminded her. "If you'd done this, you wouldn't be reacting this way. I feel pain over the fate of our home and friends too, but life goes on."
"You know just how sensitive and emotional she is," Stonebolt said defensively. "besides, we really look up to you as our big brother. Frostburn practically worships you." Infernalo scoffed.
"That's just because-unfortunately-we're family," he pointed out. "anyway, Frostburn loved Steelmind, you had Zephyroak's brother, and I had the lovely Aquashine." Stonebolt groaned.
"Even Leafwind knew that was dead on arrival," she said. "and leave Oakstem out of this. You don't even-"
"Enough," Frostburn shouted in an authoritative and commanding tone Frostburn used whenever she was too frustrated with a situation to let it continue. "I'm exhausted, so let's just see if we can't rest up at the nearest town over there." she pointed a hoof at a small little town in the distance. Infernalo wasn't going to ignore that he was also exhausted and decided to lead them into the town.